DeepSeek exploded in popularity for a month: Tencent Yuanbao aggressively invested in user acquisition, Kimi plummeted, and Doubao declined

In the one month since DeepSeek exploded in popularity, the entire AI circle has undergone significant changes, with various apps integrating DeepSeek, version updates, and heavy spending on user acquisition. Embracing and competing have become the main themes in the AI circle at the beginning of 2025.

Among them, the most notable recently are Tencent Yuanbao, ByteDance Doubao, and Kimi. So, what changes have Yuanbao, Doubao, and Kimi undergone in this wave of DeepSeek, and what direction will they take in the future? DataEye will combine data to bring you the latest developments of these AI assistants.

On the rankings, Doubao used to consistently rank higher than Yuanbao in the App Store, but now the tide has turned.

On February 22, Tencent Yuanbao surpassed Doubao, rising to second place on the free chart for Apple in mainland China, with DeepSeek still holding the top position.

The most direct driving force behind Yuanbao's rise over Doubao is the recent surge in paid advertising efforts, while the indirect reason is related to product changes.

First, let's look at the advertising side.

According to ADX data, before February 5, there was a clear stratification in the amount of advertising materials for Kimi, Doubao, and Tencent Yuanbao, with significant differences.

After that, the amount of advertising materials for Kimi gradually declined, becoming the lowest among the three around February 15, and has since maintained a daily material volume of no more than 1,000 sets.

Doubao saw a certain degree of increase in advertising efforts after February 5, followed by a significant decline, maintaining a level of advertising similar to late January.

Yuanbao's changes are the most pronounced. In the past, Yuanbao's advertising efforts were always low, and Tencent was perceived by the outside world as having a vague strategy and slow actions in the AI large model field. However, on February 15, Yuanbao's advertising efforts slightly increased, and on February 18, it surged significantly, reaching a daily maximum of over 11,000 sets of advertising materials, becoming the leader among the three.

In comparison, Yuanbao's advertising efforts have surged over the past 6 days (February 18-23), with a total of 55,000 sets of advertising materials, a 345.1% increase compared to the previous 6 days (February 9-14), which had 12,000 sets of advertising materials.

As for the reasons behind the changes in advertising efforts for the three products, DataEye Research Institute believes:

① Tencent Yuanbao integrated DeepSeek and launched its self-developed inference large model HunyuanT1, aiming to capture market share and occupy user mindshare by increasing advertising efforts, while also promoting the HunyuanT1 large model.

On February 13, Tencent Yuanbao announced an update to integrate DeepSeek, which coincided with a slight increase in Yuanbao's investment intensity on February 15; on February 17, Tencent Yuanbao launched the HunyuanT1 large model, which aligned with a significant increase in investment intensity on February 18.

During this period, Tencent Yuanbao frequently updated its version. The new version on February 22 supports uploading and photo recognition. Under the guidance of multiple factors such as product and investment, Yuanbao officially surpassed Doubao, becoming the second most downloaded free app on Apple in mainland China.

② Doubao's investment intensity rose and then fell, which is actually just a return to a normal investment state. Compared to Tencent, Doubao has not integrated DeepSeek, and ByteDance's overall attitude towards DeepSeek has been very conservative. This seems to represent ByteDance's confidence in its own Doubao large model: ByteDance may believe that the Doubao large model can catch up to DeepSeek's level in the near future.

Therefore, after DeepSeek became popular, there was a brief increase in investment flow in an attempt to catch up, followed by a return to a rational state, which aligns with the trend of Doubao's investment intensity changes.

③ Kimi is reflecting on its past "heavy investment" strategy and has decided to reduce investment, focusing on basic model training. Last week, media reports indicated that Moon's Dark Side recently decided to significantly cut its product investment budget, including suspending investments in multiple Android channels and collaborations with third-party advertising platforms. This coincides with Kimi's sharp drop in material investment around February 15.

At the same time, Moon's Dark Side internally reviewed and concluded that it should adhere to the basic model SOTA (State-of-the-art), and may retrain the basic model while seizing application layer opportunities. One direction selected internally is a smart agent product called DeepResearch aimed at the deep research field.

Looking at it today, Kimi and Doubao, two former star AI applications, one drastically cuts investment while the other returns to normal, and instead, the less vocal Tencent Yuanbao has risen.

So, in this trend, what new changes will occur in the AI circle in the coming months? Will Doubao and Kimi have new breakthroughs at the technical level? Can Yuanbao maintain its second position? DataEye Research Institute will continue to monitor.

DataEye application data intelligence, original title: "DeepSeek's Explosive Growth in One Month: Tencent Yuanbao Invests Heavily, Kimi Plummets, Doubao Declines"

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