After the technologies such as generative AI and cloud computing have gradually erased the technology and cost gap between large enterprises and SMEs, the only thing left for enterprises to compete is talent, creativity and execution.

At present, with the rapid iteration of AI technology, various products based on AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Content Generation) technology continue to pour into the society, and the most common among them is a large number of AI mapping models, such as Midjourney, Dreambooth, Novel AI and Stable Diffusion.

Although the AI mapping field seems to have entered an era of blossoming, the top streams in the industry are still represented by Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.

In April this year, Midjourney further announced the launch of Niji-journey V5, a drawing model for the secondary and anime genres.

The biggest difference between this model and the previous one is that it can "replace" the senior original artist.

With its outstanding shape tension and color use, as well as rich stylization power, Niji V5 not only looks silly to the crowd, but also amazes the industry's artists, making people say it already has the taste of master illustration.

One of the reasons for this qualitative change is that Niji V5 supports stylize parameter settings compared to previous versions.

In short, with this version, users can simply use the stylize command to refer to different artists' design styles to produce images.

With the help of Niji V5, people can easily generate many "master" works.

The quality of Niji V5's output images is quite excellent, covering almost all common styles on the market. On top of that, users only need to fine-tune the design and can basically achieve most of the needs of working with good advanced original drawings.

With such excellent technology, one can't help but be interested in Midjourney, the company behind it.

In fact, although Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are the two leaders of AI painting, their current situation is very different.

Stability AI, the star company behind Stable Diffusion, is in serious financial trouble and is in danger of going out of business due to the lack of a clear path to profitability.

Midjourney, by contrast, is running smoothly, with a paid subscription business model that not only generates $100 million in annual revenue, but also has amassed more than 10 million users on Discord.

How did Midjourney get to where it is today, with the same team that developed the drawing AI?

From Midjourney's seemingly unbelievable startup experience, we can see that the companies and teams that can stand out in this AIGC era are not necessarily the big and wealthy ones.

Because after technologies such as generative AI and cloud computing gradually erase the technology and cost gap between large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, the only thing left for enterprises to really compete with is talent, creativity and execution.

That's why Midjourney, a small team of just a dozen people, stands out. Because such teams, which rely on a few cutting-edge talents, have the flexibility, creativity and drive that large companies don't have.

The creativity and inspiration of such small teams, if they are to really take root in the market and society, cannot be separated from the tracking of diverse and personalized needs of users.

This is because the "generality" of AIGC technology determines that it is never a technology for a certain industry, group of people, or a certain type of enterprise.

Only in this diverse needs, as far as possible to meet the specific needs of different levels of users, a product can really have a long-term life.

Serving everyone without neglecting everyone in particular is perhaps the biggest reason for Midjourney's success.

After the technologies such as generative AI and cloud computing have gradually erased the technology and cost gap between large enterprises and SMEs, the only thing left for enterprises to compete is talent, creativity and execution.

At present, with the rapid iteration of AI technology, various products based on AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Content Generation) technology continue to pour into the society, and the most common among them is a large number of AI mapping models, such as Midjourney, Dreambooth, Novel AI and Stable Diffusion.

Although the AI mapping field seems to have entered an era of blossoming, the top streams in the industry are still represented by Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.

In April this year, Midjourney further announced the launch of Niji-journey V5, a drawing model for the secondary and anime genres.

The biggest difference between this model and the previous one is that it can "replace" the senior original artist.

With its outstanding shape tension and color use, as well as rich stylization power, Niji V5 not only looks silly to the crowd, but also amazes the industry's artists, making people say it already has the taste of master illustration.

One of the reasons for this qualitative change is that Niji V5 supports stylize parameter settings compared to previous versions.

In short, with this version, users can simply use the stylize command to refer to different artists' design styles to produce images.

With the help of Niji V5, people can easily generate many "master" works.

The quality of Niji V5's output images is quite excellent, covering almost all common styles on the market. On top of that, users only need to fine-tune the design and can basically achieve most of the needs of working with good advanced original drawings.

With such excellent technology, one can't help but be interested in Midjourney, the company behind it.

In fact, although Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are the two leaders of AI painting, their current situation is very different.

Stability AI, the star company behind Stable Diffusion, is in serious financial trouble and is in danger of going out of business due to the lack of a clear path to profitability.

Midjourney, by contrast, is running smoothly, with a paid subscription business model that not only generates $100 million in annual revenue, but also has amassed more than 10 million users on Discord.

How did Midjourney get to where it is today, with the same team that developed the drawing AI?

From Midjourney's seemingly unbelievable startup experience, we can see that the companies and teams that can stand out in this AIGC era are not necessarily the big and wealthy ones.

Because after technologies such as generative AI and cloud computing gradually erase the technology and cost gap between large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, the only thing left for enterprises to really compete with is talent, creativity and execution.

That's why Midjourney, a small team of just a dozen people, stands out. Because such teams, which rely on a few cutting-edge talents, have the flexibility, creativity and drive that large companies don't have.

The creativity and inspiration of such small teams, if they are to really take root in the market and society, cannot be separated from the tracking of diverse and personalized needs of users.

This is because the "generality" of AIGC technology determines that it is never a technology for a certain industry, group of people, or a certain type of enterprise.

Only in this diverse needs, as far as possible to meet the specific needs of different levels of users, a product can really have a long-term life.

Serving everyone without neglecting everyone in particular is perhaps the biggest reason for Midjourney's success.