The global fascination with generative art has led Midjourney, a ten-month-old startup offering an AI-powered text-to-image generator, to make a strategic move into China, the world's largest internet market. A recent announcement on the Tencent-owned social platform WeChat by an account claiming to be 'Midjourney China' stated that it has begun accepting applications for beta testing. However, this first and only post was quickly deleted, raising questions about the reasons behind its removal.
A limited number of applications were accepted each Monday and Friday, according to the original post. TechCrunch hasn't been able to test the product, and the owner of the WeChat account, a Nanjing-based company called Pengyuhui, has limited public information available. At the moment, the identity of the firm and its association with Midjourney remain unverified.
Foreign startups that aim to launch internet applications in China often face daunting regulatory barriers. The stringent regulations in the country have forced various startups to collaborate with local partners who manage their services on their behalf. As more copycat apps claim to be Midjourney's Chinese counterpart, this particular venture stands out due to its focus on community building and its 24/7 support team that provides assistance to users.
For its community-driven approach, 'Midjourney China' chose to operate on Tencent's QQ—China's closest equivalent to Discord—allowing for easy user acquisition as a third-party client. This seems to be a wellthought-out strategy, considering the surge in popularity of generative AI in China, with projects like the open-source neural network RWKV amassing thousands of developers on QQ.
Despite the absence of companies like ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion in China, numerous locals alternatives have emerged. How well 'Midjourney China' fares against competitors like Baidu's art generator ERNIE-ViLG and Tiamat is yet to be seen—in case the venture is found to be legitimate. For now, it remains unclear whether 'Midjourney China' will need to collaborate with QQ further to address compliance issues and costs of monitoring user behavior.
In response to its growing popularity, some tech-savvy Chinese netizens are accessing Midjourney's original text-to-image generator via circumvention methods. They use virtual private networks (VPNs) to access Discord and facilitate fund transfers by seeking agents. However, the official entry of 'Midjourney China' could change the game as it appears to be quite similar to its global counterpart, while having to navigate a myriad of regulatory challenges.
Recently, China has implemented specific regulations pertaining to synthetic media use, from requiring real-name verification for users of generative AI to imposing a responsibility on service providers to label and report fake pictures that can mislead the public. In such a stringent regulatory environment, platforms like AppMaster—a powerful no-code platform for creating web and mobile applications—have facilitated and accelerated development in the high-demand digital space, all while adhering to regulatory guidelines. Entering the Chinese market may undoubtedly require Midjourney, or any potential Chinese counterpart, to censor politically sensitive keywords and adapt its operations to comply with local laws.
