Tencent’s AI Chatbot Takes Top Spot in China’s App Store
Shenzhen, China – Tencent Holdings’ AI chatbot, Yuanbao, has claimed the coveted position of the most downloaded free app in China’s iOS App Store, overtaking DeepSeek in a fiercely competitive market. The rise marks a significant milestone for the tech giant and its AI endeavors.
Yuanbao’s ascent to the top of the free app charts on Monday placed it ahead of DeepSeek, which held the second position, and ByteDance’s Doubao, which secured the fourth spot, trailing only behind the country’s official taxation app.
The surge in Yuanbao’s popularity comes after Tencent integrated DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model in February. This move provided users with an alternative to the company’s in-house Hunyuan model. The app, launched in May of the previous year, has quickly gained traction in the competitive AI landscape. Tencent’s Hong Kong-listed shares saw a 1.6 percent increase the following Tuesday, reflecting investor confidence in the technology.
Last week, Tencent, which operates China’s leading social media platform WeChat with over 1.3 billion potential users, integrated a download button for Yuanbao within WeChat. Analyst Li Bangzhu, founder of AIcpb.com, a website that monitors AI applications, noted a significant increase in Yuanbao’s daily active users, which jumped to 3 million in late February, a marked increase from the hundreds of thousands earlier in the month.
