Doubao, a ChatGPT-like conversational bot developed by TikTok owner ByteDance, has emerged as the most popular AI app for Chinese consumers among a long list of competing products, even though its profit model remains unclear.
The app, which was launched last August, topped the AI bot chat ranks with 51 million monthly active users (MAUs) in China, according to Aicpb.com, a website that tracks AI products. The user base was larger than Baidu’s Wenxiaoyan – formerly known as Ernie Bot – with 12.5 million users and Alibaba Group Holding-backed Moonshot AI’s Kimi at 10 million. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
As Beijing requires government registration of AI apps before they are made available to download onto smartphones and laptops, the Chinese market is dominated by domestic products, with little presence from globally popular apps like ChatGPT, which said it has over 180 million users.
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A screenshot of Doubao, the ChatGPT-like conversational bot developed by TikTok owner ByteDance. Photo: Handout alt=A screenshot of Doubao, the ChatGPT-like conversational bot developed by TikTok owner ByteDance. Photo: Handout>
Doubao, which is free to download and use in China, has proved popular. Apart from tasks such as writing emails or summarising long texts, it also supports image, audio and video generation, data analysis, and AI-powered online search – a function that ChatGPT only recently acquired.
The wide array of capabilities has helped Doubao become the go-to AI app for Chinese consumers. ByteDance, however, has not announced any plans to monetise Doubao, even though it is costly to train such applications based on large language models.
A consultant surnamed Cheng, who works in Hangzhou, said Doubao has become an effective tool for “editing and improving text”, and for its “logical organisation of content”. Zhu Jiahui, a software salesperson based in Beijing, said he is a frequent user of Doubao for its easy-to-use design despite it being feature-rich.
The app, accessible from its official website as well as on Android and iOS app stores, offers some of the most versatile capabilities among its local and global peers, according to analysts.
As a consumer-facing app, its rapid rise in popularity has been enabled by ByteDance’s deep pockets, strong product team, wide-ranging capabilities and a product design philosophy that ensures an AI tool also has a human touch.
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