Tencent's AI chatbot Yuanbao has surpassed DeepSeek to become the most downloaded iPhone application in China this week, according to a report by Bloomberg on the 4th.
According to Bloomberg, three of the top five most downloaded free iPhone apps this week are AI bots, with Yuanbao in first place, followed by DeepSeek and ByteDance's Doubao in second and third, respectively.
Yuanbao is a service that integrates Tencent's proprietary AI technology, Hunyuan, with DeepSeek's R1 reasoning model, which operates WeChat.
Bloomberg reported that the DeepSeek craze, which began at the end of January, has injected vitality into China's technology and internet ecosystem.
Ahead of the opening of the Two Sessions (the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference), Honor, a smartphone brand that separated from Huawei, announced plans to invest $10 billion (approximately 14.6 trillion won) in AI over the next five years.
Additionally, following Alibaba's issuance of $5 billion (approximately 7.3 trillion won) in U.S. dollar and yuan bonds last November, China's largest search portal company, Baidu, is also planning to issue offshore bonds worth 10 billion yuan (approximately 2 trillion won).
However, Bloomberg pointed out that there are still concerns about the revenue-generating potential as AI technology continues to be released in open-source form following DeepSeek.