China’s AI giants cosy up to virtual companions as loneliness drives chatbot revenue

The companies have each built their own answer to established foreign apps like Character.ai and Replika. Last year, Baidu launched Xiaokan Planet and Tencent’s online literature arm China Literature rolled out Zhumengdao. TikTok owner ByteDance released its Maoxiang app in March. The concept behind each of these products is roughly the same: they generate humanlike … Read more

Chinese AI social media apps see demand rise in overseas markets amid slow mainland adoption

A number of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) companies are seeing greater demand for their social media applications in overseas markets, as adoption on the mainland has been slower by comparison. Shanghai-based MiniMax – a generative AI start-up that counts South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding as a major investor – has become a … Read more