DeepSeek's Remarkable Growth Overtakes ByteDance's Doubao in China's AI App Market

DeepSeek Outshines Doubao in Daily Active Users

The chatbot app from artificial intelligence (AI) sensation DeepSeek has overtaken Doubao, the equivalent product from TikTok parent ByteDance, as China’s most popular AI app, reflecting the continuing widespread interest in the Hangzhou-based start-up.

Since DeepSeek’s open-source V3 and R1 models sent shock waves through Silicon Valley and Wall Street last month, the start-up has also been making waves back home as domestic graphics processing unit (GPU) makers, cloud service providers, businesses, and consumers all rush to embrace it.

The company’s namesake DeepSeek AI assistant, offered as a free app to consumers, had an average of 22.2 million daily active users (DAUs) in January, surpassing Doubao’s 17 million DAUs in the same period, according to the latest data compiled by Aicpb.com, a website that tracks the popularity of global AI services.

DeepSeek: A Rapid Ascent

• DeepSeek became the world’s fastest-growing AI app, surpassing OpenAI’s ChatGPT as it crossed 21 million DAUs within three weeks of its public release.
• The R1 reasoning model introduced by DeepSeek matched or surpassed OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model, boosting its popularity significantly.
• DeepSeek’s growth caught the attention of prominent figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and US President Donald Trump.

During the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, DeepSeek-generated text gained traction on domestic social media, with users creating poems and viral content.

Amid DeepSeek’s rapid rise, Altman announced on X that OpenAI would be releasing a free version of its reasoning model. By the end of January, DeepSeek had become the most downloaded app in Apple’s US App Store, leading across 140 global markets.

Despite DeepSeek's rise, ByteDance's Doubao maintains a lead in monthly active users (MAUs), with 78.6 million compared to DeepSeek's 33.7 million as of January.