Tencent’s AI chatbot app, Yuanbao, has climbed to the top of the free app download rankings in Apple’s China App Store as of March 3, surpassing DeepSeek. Doubao, a competing AI chatbot from TikTok owner ByteDance, now ranks fourth. This milestone comes just 10 days after Yuanbao overtook Doubao to reach the No. 2 spot on Feb. 22.
Tencent’s Yuanbao has seen rapid updates in recent weeks. On Feb. 13, it began supporting both Tencent’s Hunyuan model and DeepSeek-R1, offering users free access to the latter’s full-capacity version. It is also integrated with Tencent’s ecosystem, including WeChat’s public accounts and video platform. Further enhancements followed, with the roll-out of Hunyuan’s advanced Thinker (T1) model on Feb. 17, full-scale implementation on Feb. 19, and image comprehension capabilities on Feb. 21. A PC version for Windows and macOS launched on March 1.
Tencent’s marketing strategy, including heavy ad spending on major platforms, has boosted Yuanbao’s downloads. Industry data shows Tencent invested RMB 2.81 billion ($390 million) in advertising over 27 days, primarily after Feb. 13. [Jiemian, in Chinese]
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