Hi folks, we are back with our weekly edition of China’s Digital Digest, wherein we bring you weekly updates on China’s digital space. The report takes a quick glance at China’s complex and rapidly evolving social media landscape by providing updates on the latest happenings across the social media industry. Here are the major highlights of the report.
1. ByteDance Short Video Service Douyin Offers Users Quick Access to AI Chatbot
ByteDance is seeking to leverage the popularity of its domestic short video app, Douyin, to widen the usage of the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Doubao.
TikTok sibling Douyin – which had 880 million monthly active users in January, according to market research firm Analysys Qianfan – recently allowed selected users to initiate conversations with Doubao, without having to log on to the chatbot. Douyin users could start chatting via the short video app’s direct messaging section, where Doubao automatically appears alongside other private conversations, or by clicking on a button beside the like, comment and share icons found on the side of each video.
2. TikTok Live Set to Make US$77 Billion in Annual Sales, Lawsuit Shows
TikTok generated US$1.7 billion globally in sales from TikTok Live in just one quarter in 2023, with more than US$400 million of that coming from the US, according to a newly unsealed lawsuit brought against the company in Washington.
TikTok projected that the popular live-streaming feature would generate US$77 billion globally by 2027, the complaint claimed. The numbers were part of a lawsuit filed in October by District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb alleging rampant sexual and financial exploitation of children on Live, where TikTokers can broadcast in real-time to billions of strangers around the world.
3. Douyin Integrates Doubao AI
The Douyin app is reportedly testing the integration of Doubao AI capabilities within the app, opening two strategic entry points for Doubao. This move signifies ByteDance’s acceleration in advancing its AI ecosystem layout. These two entry points are located in the short video interface and the message list, aiming to completely break the traditional barriers between AI products and traffic platforms.
Previously, users had to exit Douyin to use Doubao, resulting in low frequency of use and stickiness. By directly integrating it, Douyin can not only enhance its own AI capabilities but also introduce a broader user traffic to Doubao. ByteDance is concurrently advancing multiple AI product lines internally, including MoFang Zhi Dao, Ji Yi, Xiao He AI Doctor, covering various fields such as information reading, medical care, programming, showcasing a comprehensive AI product ecosystem.
4. DeepSeek Discloses A Theoretical Cost-Profit Ratio of 545%
The official certified account of DeepSeek has published an article titled “DeepSeek-V3/R1 Inference System Overview” on Zhihu, revealing for the first time the core optimization solution of the model inference system and disclosing a theoretical profit margin as high as 545%, setting a new record in profitability in the global AI large model field and causing a stir in the industry.
The article shows that the optimization goal of DeepSeek-V3/R1 inference system is to achieve greater throughput and lower latency. To achieve these two goals, DeepSeek utilizes large-scale cross-node expert parallelism (EP). Firstly, EP significantly increases batch size, thereby improving efficiency of matrix multiplication on graphics processing units (GPUs) and enhancing throughput. Secondly, EP disperses experts across different GPUs so that each GPU only needs to compute a few experts, resulting in fewer memory access requirements and reducing latency.
5. Surpassing DeepSeek, Tencent Yuanbao Rises to the Top of the Download Ranking
Tencent Holdings Ltd. subsidiary Tencent Yuanbao App has risen from second place to first place in the free app download ranking on the China region Apple App Store, surpassing DeepSeek.
Tencent Yuanbao took less than 10 days to move from second place to first place. On February 22nd, Tencent Yuanbao surpassed Dou Bao and rose to second place in the China region Apple free app download ranking, while DeepSeek remained at the top.
6. Chinese Team Unveils AI Agent, Manus
Weeks after Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek caused a whirlwind with its DeepSeek-R1 model, a new Chinese artificial intelligence agent, Manus, has rapidly captured the attention of the AI community with its ability to handle complex, real-world tasks.
According to their team, Manus is a truly autonomous AI agent capable of handling various complex and dynamic tasks. Unlike traditional AI assistants, Manus not only provides suggestions or answers but also delivers complete task results. Manus utilizes a multi-signature (multisig) system driven by multiple independent models. Later this year, the official plan is to open-source some of these models, particularly the ‘postering’ (inference) part of Manus.
7. JD.Com Nearly Triples Quarterly Profit on Back of Revived Consumer Spending
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com saw its December-quarter profit nearly triple from a year earlier on the back of increased consumer spending in the world’s second-largest economy.
The Beijing-based company reported a better-than-expected profit of 9.9 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in the fourth quarter, up from 3.4 billion yuan in the year-earlier period. Revenue reached 347 billion yuan, up 13.4 percent from 306 billion yuan a year ago. JD.com’s shares were up nearly 5 percent in pre-market trading in the US. Its Hong Kong-listed shares rose 8.42 percent to close at HK$179 before the firm’s latest financial results were released.
8. Huawei Leads China’s Smartphone Sales Boom Fuelled by Subsidies
Huawei Technologies took the crown in China’s smartphone market in January, buoyed by a government subsidy scheme for electronics purchases, according to the latest numbers from industry consultancy Counterpoint Research.
Last year’s best selling brand Vivo came second, followed by Xiaomi. Together, the top three vendors contributed around 54 percent of the nearly 29 million smartphones sold in China last month. Total sales in the market rose 17 percent from a year earlier, with handsets priced between 2,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan (US$275 and US$688) growing the fastest.
Wrapping Up
The vast and diverse nature of the Chinese Social Media space makes it incredibly challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments taking place. However, China’s Digital Digest brings you all the latest updates from there to keep you abreast of all the evolving trends.
To delve deeper into the findings of our latest report, click here.
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