ByteDance has outpaced Baidu in the competition to introduce China’s version of ChatGPT, particularly in terms of user popularity. Dubbed Doubao, the AI-driven chatbot launched in August exceeded Baidu’s Ernie Bot in downloads last year and currently boasts a larger user base on iOS in China, as indicated by Sensor Tower data. Although Ernie initially gained traction quickly, ByteDance has now surged ahead, with other competitors also making strides.
Beijing-based ByteDance has prioritized catching up in AI, with Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Liang Rubo asking for a sense of urgency at the company that built up a global following with its short-video services, TikTok and Douyin. Sensor Tower data showed that its Doubao was the most downloaded AI chatbot on Apple’s iOS with almost nine million downloads in the year to April, followed by Ernie at eight million. Doubao also had the most monthly active users, with more than four million.
Although the research doesn't encompass Android mobile app stores, it mirrors the broader pattern in the Chinese market. ByteDance recently announced that Doubao currently boasts 26 million monthly active users across both mobile and PC platforms. This contrasts with Similarweb data indicating OpenAI's ChatGPT mobile app has 6.7 million monthly users in the US.
Tech giants from China like Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings are following the lead of Silicon Valley counterparts such as Microsoft by heavily investing in generative AI. Apart from creating their own foundational models, they are injecting hundreds of millions of US dollars into emerging players like Baichuan and Zhipu AI.
The burgeoning competition among AI services in China includes emerging startups like Moonshot AI, based in Beijing, and its Kimi bot. “the sector’s low barrier to entry”, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts including Robert Lea wrote in a report. “Rampant competition in China’s AI sector which remains dominated by free-to-use services – combined with US trade restrictions on advanced AI accelerator chips will likely continue to hamper monetisation efforts for all”, they said.