How ByteDance became the leader in China among artificial intelligence chatbots, ousting DeepSeek

DeepSeek, a Chinese company specialising in artificial intelligence and Large Language Models, caused quite a stir at the beginning of 2025, only to disappear into nothingness. The fame it achieved in a matter of months at the beginning of the year had surprised the entire Silicon Valley, and beyond. Bytedance, the company behind TikTok, one of the world's most popular apps, had just launched its own AI, Duobao, but the launch was completely ignored due to the sudden boom of Deepseek.

During the summer of 2025, however, Duobao managed to climb the rankings, positioning itself as the fourth most used AI in the world and first as the most used artificial intelligence app in China, surpassing DeepSeek. Part of its success is undoubtedly due to the warm and welcoming atmosphere that characterises Duobao - the name, in fact, refers to a steamed bun. Compared to other currently popular AIs, Duobao plays on the “humanity” of its model.

Another point in favour of this artificial intelligence's popularity is precisely its versatility. Whereas in the West countless models have been created, each specialising in a main theme, Bytedance has created an AI that is apparently capable of doing everything.