Zedge Marketplace Data Reveals Strong Consumer Preference for AI-Generated Content

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 12, 2024 / Zedge, Inc. (NYSE AMERICAN:ZDGE), a leader in building digital marketplaces and friendly competitive games around content that people use to express themselves, today unveiled compelling new data showing a significant consumer preference for AI-generated content in the Zedge Marketplace. Contrary to recent findings from the University of Washington, Zedge's data reveal that its users are increasingly drawn to AI-created art over human-made images.

Since August 2022, when generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) models that produce unique photorealistic images from text and image prompts first became widely available, the Zedge Marketplace has experienced a remarkable 673% increase in image uploads, underscoring a growing interest in AI-generated content. This trend highlights a clear shift towards digital art created by artificial intelligence.

Tim Quirk, Zedge's Senior Vice President of Product, remarked, "We were testing the potential for a wallpaper app devoid of any AI-generated items, and I confess, I assumed the human-made collections would beat the robots. It's not like anybody ever roots for the steam-powered drill to beat John Henry. But the data tell us that many Zedge users not only don't mind AI images, they seem to prefer them. Additionally, Zedge Premium's highest-earning artists tend to use AI generators as a starting point for images, and they refine further by hand, so it's not always an either/or choice."

In-depth experiments were conducted to measure user engagement with AI-generated versus human-created wallpapers. Collections labeled as "AI Art" or "Non-Human Art" were featured alongside those marked "Human Art" on Zedge's Android and iOS apps. The results were striking: AI-generated collections consistently outperformed their human-made counterparts in clicks and downloads, even when behind ad gates or paywalls.

In the initial experiment, AI-generated art saw 73% more clicks and 338% more downloads compared to human-made collections. Subsequent tests with labels such as "Man-Made Art" versus "AI Art" showed AI collections receiving 36% more clicks and 176% more downloads. These results were consistent over several months, ruling out the novelty effect of AI.

These data challenge a recent potential notion that consumers are skeptical of AI-generated content. Zedge's findings suggest a strong and growing appetite for AI-generated wallpapers, indicating a nuanced consumer perspective on artificial intelligence. While discussions about AI's impact on various industries continue, Zedge's data point to a promising future for AI-generated content in mobile phone personalization.

For further details, Tim Quirk's Zedge blog post elaborates on these findings and their implications here.

About Zedge
Zedge builds digital marketplaces and friendly competitive games around content people use to express themselves. Our leading products include Zedge Ringtones and Wallpapers, a freemium digital content marketplace offering mobile phone wallpapers, video wallpapers, ringtones, notification sounds, and pAInt, a generative AI image creation platform; GuruShots, a skill-based photo challenge game; and Emojipedia, the #1 trusted source for 'all things emoji'. Our vision is to enable and connect creators who enjoy friendly competitions with a community of prospective consumers in order to drive commerce. We serve 10's of millions of active users across our offerings every month. For more information, visit investor.zedge.net

Forward-Looking Statements
All statements above that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which we use the words "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "target" and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors. Our filings with the SEC provide detailed information on such statements and risks and should be consulted along with this release. To the extent permitted under applicable law, we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:
Brian Siegel, IRC, MBA
Senior Managing Director
Hayden IR
(346) 396-8696
[email protected]

SOURCE: Zedge, Inc.

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