Tencent Cloud Assists Businesses in Extending Customer Reach via Digital-First Audio and Video Solutions

Recent research from leading analyst firm finds growing demand for organizations to address consumers' need for digital dynamic, real-time interactions

HONG KONG, Dec. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology leader Tencent, emphasizes its commitment to boost businesses' customer reach and engagement as the world ushers in a digital-first era by leveraging real-time audio and video solutions. The reiteration of the business mission is in view of a thought leadership report by IDC and commissioned by Tencent Cloud, which indicates that organizations should provide digitally connected experiences with the same level of interactivity that in-person interfaces allow.

The Shift to Online Real-Time Interactions

The world's shift to a digital-first model means that consumers now expect accessibility anytime and anywhere when they engage with organizations. The IDC InfoBrief, Redefining customer engagement for a digital-first world: A look at the rise of audio/video consumption and real-time communication, shows that COVID-19 has spurred the use of real-time audio/video globally as organizations shifted to digital-first engagements to stay connected with consumers and customers. The study also indicated that the trend is expected to continue into 2022, with APAC organizations having the highest penetration of live audio/video chat (92%), infotainment (92%) and in-app video live streams (91%).

Furthermore, the Europe and Middle East regions follow a similar growth trend, but with varying use cases that are skewed toward community-based interactions using web-based live-stream broadcasting and instant messaging video chats, which are both at 82%. In contrast, North America is growing at a relatively slower pace, mainly driven by rising established use cases in consumer-tainment by marketing to promote brand awareness and subscription-based VOD services.

Organizations planning digital-first customer engagements with audio/video solutions must address business and technical challenges to reap the benefits of seamlessly replicating in-person experiences. Tencent Cloud shares an essential guidance for businesses to leverage real-time audio/video offerings and redefine customer engagement:

• Make communications more contextualized, conversational, and impactful using audio/video as a more immersive format to deliver brand content and messaging (e.g. social video marketing, etc.);
• Provide more seamless journey steps leveraging audio/video's interactivity to entice higher-purchase frequency/volume and providing information richness to enable customer self-service (e.g. live-streamed product promotion and demonstration, etc.);
• Learn about customers' preferences through their video content preferences and viewing behaviors to improve product usage experiences or to optimize customer experience (e.g. VOD subscriptions, video usage analytics, etc.)
• Gain deeper insights into customer sentiments by capturing non-verbal cues through video support and drive better satisfaction by addressing queries in a responsive fashion through audio/video (e.g. instant messaging video chats, live video customer support, etc.)

Going Digital-First with Tencent Cloud

Supporting enterprises globally in a digital-first world, Tencent Cloud provides a one-stop audio and video solution that includes on-demand video, live streaming, real-time video calls and short videos, among others, for scenarios such as online videos, live sales, live gaming, e-learning, healthcare, events, exhibitions and financial services. Tencent Cloud's services include:

• Tencent Real-Time Communication (TRTC) - leverages Tencent's years of experience in network and audio/video technologies to offer group audio and video calls and low-latency interactive live streaming solutions, allowing users to quickly develop cost-effective, low-latency, and high-quality interactive audio/video applications.
• Tencent Cloud Video on Demand (VOD) - a comprehensive integrating audio and video upload, live recording, media asset management, automated transcoding, video AI, content delivery acceleration, and player SDKs.
• Cloud Streaming Services (CSS) - ensures ultra-low latency, ultra-high image quality, and ultra-high performance to sustain massive volumes of concurrent requests, featuring professional, stable, and agile features such as live push, transcoding, distribution, and playback.
• User Generated Short Video (UGSV) client SDK - leverages the powerful upload, storage, transcoding and distribution capabilities of Tencent Cloud VOD to offer features such as video capturing, clipping, splicing, special effects, sharing and playback. It can be used with Instant Messaging (IM), social networking, image detection and other Tencent services.
• Tencent Cloud Online Video Platform - a one-stop online video cloud platform for OTT operators, content owners, broadcasters and publishers to perform various video services with Tencent Cloud's reliable global content delivery network (CDN), from live streaming to on-demand video contents across mobile, smart TV, web, etc.
• Instant Messaging (IM) – allows users to add features such as chats, conversations, groups, and profile management simply by installing an SDK, and supports rich media messaging, including text, image, audio, and video to cover all communication needs.

Poshu Yeung, Senior Vice President, Tencent Cloud International, said, "Tencent Cloud ensures that its finger is on the pulse regarding the ever-evolving demands of customers and consumers around the world, and how global enterprises can cover all their needs. As we have seen in the recent IDC research, the pandemic has spurred the use of real-time audio and video as companies adopted digital-first engagements. As always, Tencent Cloud is ready and able to provide enterprises digital-first, real-time solutions to make sure they are always on their track to success."

To access the full IDC InfoBrief titled "Redefining customer engagement for a digital-first world: A look at the rise of audio/video consumption and real-time communication", please visit: https://intl.cloud.tencent.com/resources/whitepaper/100199.