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AI adoption in China grows to 230 million users, with Baidu’s Ernie Bot leading the market

With a market share of 11.5 per cent, Baidu’s Ernie Bot is the most frequently used AI product in China.

Baidu sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. (Image: Reuters)

The rush among big tech companies and startups to offer large language models (LLMs) has led to a surge in the adoption of AI tools in China. The country recorded over 230 million users of AI products and services till June this year, according to a report by a State-run agency called the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC).

By October, over 600 million users had signed up to use one out of the nearly 200 commercially available LLMs in China, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.

The CNNIC report revealed that out of the 309 AI companies that had registered their LLMs with the Cyberspace Administration of China, 190 of them have received approval so far. Companies are required to obtain approval from the country’s internet regulator before making their LLMs accessible to the public.

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The most frequently used AI product by local users is Chinese tech giant Baidu’s AI chatbot called Ernie Bot – which has a market share of 11.5 per cent. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini models are not officially accessible in mainland China, they still reportedly command a market share of 7 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively.

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As per the CNNIC report, almost two-thirds of AI users in China use LLMs to answer queries while one-third of them rely on AI virtual assistants to generate slides and transcribe meetings.

The number of AI users in China suggests that the adoption of LLMs in the country is on the rise with domestic tech companies looking to take on US-based AI giants such as OpenAI and Google.

Prominent Chinese startups such as Baichuan, Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI and MiniMax have launched their own AI models for use by consumers as well as enterprises. However, export controls imposed by the US on suppliers such as NVIDIA and other restrictions threaten to slow down the progress of AI companies in China.