The first anniversary of Agora’s listing, from RTC to RTE, attaches great importance to the developer ecology

On June 26, 2020, the sound network Agora landed on Nasdaq. The stock code is API, and it has become "the first global real-time interactive cloud" .

following content is from Agora's official public number

The successful listing is the market's recognition of our past professional services and technical value, and is an important milestone; at the same time, it is also a new starting point for us to realize the vision of "Let real-time interaction be ubiquitous like air and water" in the future.

In Q1 of 2021, the average monthly real-time audio and video usage minutes of exceeded 50 billion minutes for the first time, reaching a new historical height. In the last month, just released 2021 Q1 earnings, revenue hit a record high, of $ 40.23 million ; global registration application over 306,000 , an increase of% 67 ; the number of active customers of 2324 a , an increase of 98% . Our customers around the world more than 200 countries and regions .

At the beginning of the establishment of Soundnet, we identified the future development space of the real-time Internet and began to dig in this field. From the perspective of Voicenet, real-time interaction is not simply information exchange represented by voice calls or video conferences, but more about creating a real-time interactive sharing scene and time and space.

We know that it is very difficult to introduce a new track to the market. But in fact, we created the concept and industry of real-time interaction (RTE) and made it a fast-growing emerging industry track.

This is the result of the joint efforts of all developers, customers, partners and all soundnet partners. Together, we have created countless amazing application scenarios, such as real-time chorus, smart work lights, remote ultrasound, space killing, meta universe, etc. .

Here, we will share some of the most memorable moments in the past year with all RTE developers, customers and partners:

"RTE" represents all the products and technology combinations needed to build real-time interactive application scenarios. In addition to the core RTC, it also includes signaling, whiteboard, recording, storage, IM, and so on. In the past year, we have continued to consolidate the core technology of RTC, and at the same time, we are also working on the multi-dimensional product line layout to build the RTE product map.

In April 2021, Shengwang released a new version of Agora Native SDK 3.4.0, which added richer real-time beauty sound effects, screen sharing, virtual metronome and other functions. At the same time, it has made improvements in the stability, compatibility and security compliance of the SDK. Significantly upgraded to provide a smoother, low-latency interactive experience.

In March 2021, Shengwang officially released the education industry's first aPaaS product "Smart Classroom", helping educational institutions and developers to launch their own-brand, full-featured online interactive teaching platform in as fast as 15 minutes, saving 90% of development time. Two months after the launch, the number of registered customers of Smart Class exceeded 1,000, the number of supported classes exceeded 500,000 per month, and the cumulative number of students covered worldwide exceeded 4 million.

In March 2021, Acoustic Network released the industry’s first whiteboard PaaS product "Interactive Whiteboard" that supports H5 courseware. The interactive whiteboard can quickly realize multi-person real-time interactive whiteboard collaboration. It supports H5 courseware interaction, dynamic PPT display, real-time trajectory synchronization, and audio Multiple functions such as video synchronization. Among them, H5 courseware provides text, pictures, tables, audio, video and other forms of display and interactive methods to help enhance the real-time interactive experience in the classroom and enhance the interest of the teaching scene.

In February 2021, Soundnet created the first page recording solution based on industry pain points. Let page recording achieve what you see is what you get, and record audio, video, whiteboard, courseware, and chat information in real time without additional bandwidth or performance overhead. The recording process does not affect the real-time interactive experience of any host or audience.

In January 2021, Huanxin joined the sound network family. Huanxin started with IM, providing developers with a safe and reliable instant messaging network, and occupies a leading position in the instant messaging market. In addition, Huanxin's customer service cloud business is also in the first echelon in China, with a broad and high-quality customer base. The addition of Huanxin provides stronger IM capabilities and experience for the sound network to build the core capabilities of RTE real-time interaction. The combination of the two parties will also jointly create the strongest RTC+IM product portfolio in the real-time interactive cloud industry.

In December 2020, Shengwang's first low-latency, strong synchronization light interactive live broadcast product "speed live broadcast". Speedy live broadcast is mainly for live broadcast scenes with high requirements for message interaction delays such as text and whiteboard, or frequent switching between strong and weak interactions. The delay between the host and the audience is between 1.5s and 2s, which is lower than the traditional CDN live broadcast solution. More than 80%, and 90% of the viewers in the live broadcast room have a delay difference of less than 500ms, which can meet the needs of audiences who need strong synchronization scenarios such as e-commerce live broadcasts, education classes, and live broadcast answers.

In December 2020, Shengwang real-time stream acceleration RTSA SDK completed the upgrade and optimization, and released two sub-products, RTSA Lite and RTSA Pro. RTSA Lite is geared towards lightweight devices with limited resources, and is suitable for wearable and portable smart devices such as smart watches, smart cameras, and smart speakers. RTSA Pro is geared towards experience-first and resource-rich devices, and is suitable for scenarios such as unmanned vehicles, drones, and intelligent robots.

Before going public in 2020, Shengwang put forward the concept of RTE for the first time, from RTC to RTE, as a pioneer, Shengwang continued to open up the boundaries of the industry. Looking back over the past year, the combination of online and offline has become the general trend, and the demand for real-time interaction has grown exponentially, gradually penetrating into all walks of life, and will become a universal capability in the future. As a result, "RTE" has become an independent track recognized by the industry, the media, and investors, and has received unprecedented attention. After defining the new industry, Shengwang is also in the process of defining industry standards and polishing more application scenarios with customers, once again achieving industry innovation.

In July 2020, based on nearly one trillion minutes of user experience data and massive user subjective experience evaluations, Shengwang defined and launched XLA, the first experience quality standard in the RTE industry. This is also the industry's first quantifiable, Verifiable and payable experience quality standards and guarantees. If the indicators are not up to the standard, Sonic.com will compensate the customer and waive part or all of the monthly bill according to the specific situation. This commitment also demonstrates the technical strength and service quality of Sonic.com in the field of real-time interaction. There is nothing else in the market. Service providers can provide similar guarantees for real-time audio and video services.

The trustworthy relationship between the sound network and its customers and partners has allowed both parties to polish countless amazing application scenarios and realized multiple innovations. It has also made the sound network the first service in the industry to launch related industry scenario solutions. Quotient. Such as Metaverse (meta universe), real-time chorus, interactive podcast, smart work lights, Watch Party, remote ultrasound consultation and other scenes.

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Metaverse

With the maturity and popularity of VR/AR, 5G and other technologies, the concept of Metaverse has become possible to be realized. In early 2021, Shengwang joined the HTC VIVE ISV partner program, combining Shengwang's leading real-time interactive technology with HTC's innovative technologies in VR and XR to create unprecedented virtual scenes and excellent experiences for developers.

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Live Chorus

In April 2021, Shengwang also helped the well-known mini KTV brand "Mida" to realize the domestic first complete "real-time chorus" scenario solution supporting multi-terminal, multi-person chorus and high sound quality, which ended the long-term exploration of the domestic K-song industry The "real-time chorus" scene has never been online.

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Interactive Podcast

In January 2021, "Interactive Podcasting" became popular around the world under the blessing of RTC technology. As a new interactive scene of online interest and topical language chat, full communication and interactivity have made this scene widely concerned around the world. ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? And application. Soundnet launched the industry-leading "interactive podcasting" scenario solution, giving listeners an unprecedented sense of participation and interactive experience, and has been unanimously recognized by customers at home and abroad.

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Watch Party

In 2020, the Watch Party scene is gradually emerging on social platforms and video websites in the global market. Sound.com provides the Watch Party scenes including audio link and video link for the Chinese market's "Lilli Light" and the international market's virtual theater "Scener". Real-time interactive solutions based on interactive methods such as wheat.

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Smart work light

Smart homework lights are gradually becoming the focus of attention in the online education and IoT market, solving the pain points of many parents in remotely tutoring their children's homework. In the past year, Shengwang has provided support for a number of smart homework lamps in China, helping parents and teachers to provide remote care, reading and online homework guidance to their children anytime and anywhere through real-time audio and video.

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remote ultrasound

Digital medical treatment is a very important livelihood scenario. Since November last year, Acoustic Network has helped Guangzhou Irido to launch a remote real-time ultrasound examination system in many counties across the country. Sonographers in county hospitals are connected through the "Irido" remote consultation system. Physicians from a primary health center a hundred kilometers away conducted an online "face-to-face" ultrasound consultation with multiple patients to help the locals solve the problem of "difficulties in seeing a doctor" at the grassroots level, and promote the balanced development of high-quality medical resources.

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Video for medical insurance

In terms of government services, in December 2020, with the help of Shengwang, the Heilongjiang Provincial Medical Security Bureau launched the country’s first medical insurance system video remote service platform. Users only need to initiate a video call to the staff through the APP or small program, and can quickly apply for medical insurance through face recognition technology.

In addition to the above scenarios, in the past year, Shengwang has also provided real-time Bel Canto, cloud games, cloud proctoring, remote video wealth management/loans, video car insurance claims, remote medical consultation/training, space killing, video interviews, cloud fitness, online activities, Numerous innovative scenarios such as VR watch, e-commerce live broadcast, cloud concert, VR shopping, online study room, etc. continue to optimize the interactive experience.

As an enabler of the real-time Internet racetrack, in the past Shengwang used technology and products to empower developers, but with the continuous improvement of the ecology, Shengwang not only provides products and technologies, but integrates more resources. , Platform, and the power of introducing capital to empower developers, and are committed to creating an RTE ecosystem that can cover the full life cycle and full process services of developers. In the past year, Shengwang has achieved this goal through a series of activities and projects such as RTE2020 Real-time Internet Conference, Cloud Market 2.0 Upgrade, Real-Time Internet Entrepreneurship Challenge, and Programming Challenge.

In 2015, in order to promote the global real-time audio and video industry developers to better carry out technical exchanges and sharing, the sound network took the lead in hosting the world’s largest real-time Internet conference in less than two years since its establishment. Tens of thousands of global developers, industry leaders, technical experts, investors and other industry professionals participated in the conference.

With the innovation of technical capabilities and application scenarios, the sound network has also continued to expand more boundaries of real-time interaction. In 2020, the Real-Time Internet Conference will be fully upgraded from "RTC Conference" to "RTE (Real-Time Engagement) Conference". After the upgrade, it will not only include RTC technology exchanges, but also cover industry observations, ecological construction, entrepreneurial innovation, etc. around the real-time Internet. The content of the field has created an all-round conference that creates value and continues to empower real-time Internet industry developers, entrepreneurs, practitioners, and upstream and downstream ecological partners.

The Agora cloud market is the foundation for the sound network to build a real-time interactive industry chain ecosystem. With this support, it continues to extend and expand. As more and more partners’ products and technical solutions enter the Agora cloud market, the real-time whiteboard, voice identification, oral assessment, voice transcription and other capabilities will be deeply integrated with the API of the sound network, and developers can integrate one-stop , To achieve a complete real-time interactive scene.

After the full upgrade of Agora Cloud Market 2.0 in 2020, on this basis, developers can complete online selection, price comparison, testing, account opening and other links on the Shengwang platform. Improve the operating efficiency of developers, reduce the customer acquisition cost and maintenance cost of partners, and facilitate the scenario-based expansion of partners' product self-service capabilities through a rich ecological product matrix.

In 2020, with the purpose of discovering more unicorn companies that create innovative value for the industry, Shengwang, together with Wuyuan Capital and Qiji Innovation Group, organized the world’s first real-time Internet entrepreneurship challenge to find "using real-time "Interactive technology for innovation" enterprises and scenarios, the event attracted 100+ high-quality companies to participate, and finally won three companies with innovative products in the social field, vocal music teaching field, and collaborative office field. With the help of capital, the real-time Internet is promoted. The development and prosperity of the entrepreneurial ecology.

In June 2021, the " RTE 2021 Programming Challenge successful conclusion. After two months of fierce competition, 46 teams broke through from more than 200 participating teams and entered the final for a wonderful defense . The Programming Challenge is an online hackathon for global RTC developers, college students, entrepreneurs, geek companies and individual developers. Sound.com has been held for three consecutive years, and a team of 500+ contestants composed of over a thousand developers has created more than 100 outstanding works. Committed to let developers give full play to their imagination, create more real-time audio and video interactive scenes and innovative applications empowered by RTC technology, and broaden the boundaries of RTC technology capabilities.

In the process of building the RTE ecosystem, Soundnet has also introduced a series of operating mechanisms, and the "Entrepreneurship Support Plan" is an important step among them. In March of this year, Shengwang officially released the "Agora Entrepreneurship Support Plan", which provided 1 billion audio and video minutes, and aggregated 50+ partners, venture capital funds, entrepreneurial parks and other institutions in the ecosystem to provide a real-time Internet track. Entrepreneurs provide 11 resources covering 4 levels of technical products, marketing, capital, and business support, almost throughout the entire life cycle of the initial start-up.

Looking to the future, we will continue to practice low-code and customized solutions to help developers easily integrate real-time audio and video technologies. Soundnet's achievements are inseparable from the support of all developers and customers. We look forward to the future RTE technology can create more fascinating new scenes.