Baidu Released the “Wonder” App for Youth as an Information Service Platform

On Wednesday, Baidu released an App called “Wonder” which is aimed offering information services to young people. The app will cover life services, exam information, entertainment and others. One unique feature of the app is its display of the “Digital Simon”, a virtual image of Chinese actor, Gong Jun. The actor’s image was previously launched in Baidu App and is now being used in the Wonder app. The app will also feature real-time interactive communication functionality.

On November 29, Baidu App unveiled Digital Simon, the first super-realistic digital person in China who can interact with users in the app. In Wonder, the intelligent voice interaction ability of Simon has been further upgraded.

According to Chinese media outley Lanjinger, after having a conversation with Simon, its reporter found that the digital actor can cope with most dialogue scenarios and the search needs in daily life. His emotionalcommunication content also meets the needs of young people for an immersive communication and real life experience.

As an app aimed at younger users, Wonder covers two functional modules: “efficiency” and “entertainment”.

The “Efficiency” module includes learning functions such as school selection for studying abroad, document scanning, analysis of teaching assistants, etc. In an effort to be a multipurporse application, the app also aggregates life services tools such as car-hailing, take-out, express delivery, house rentals, shopping guides, among others. 

The “Entertainment” module integrates current trending topics and provides users with entertainment resources such as novels, games, cartoons and videos, creating a complete entertainment space for young users.

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In addition to providing users with practical learning, life supports and entertainment services, Wonder is also a search App that supports three types of search:  photo, voice and text. It also supports two use modes: “Zen” and “Zao”.

The Zen (a Chinese character meaning “meditation”) mode mains that the UI is simplified and focuses only on searching while the Zao (a Chinese character for “restless motion”) mode aggregates the trending topics of the whole network, allowing users to search while watching something else within the app itself. Wonder will also launch more modules in the future, and continuously upgrade its service experience.