AI brings popularity to the browser, rolling out Manus

Wen| A little more reference to Yang Zhichao

If there is an independent browser company in China, it is likely to become an AI concept stock.

It is difficult for old houses to add value, but if the surrounding areas are assigned to a new school district, the worthless old and dilapidated small houses will immediately become expensive school district houses.

The old house of the browser was assigned to the AI school district.

It has been more than 10 years since around 2010, with the migration of traffic, browsers have slowly bid farewell to the center of the Internet stage and become a relatively marginalized product. Over the years, in addition to small changes in market share, the players on the stage have lacked major changes, which can be said to be calm.

However, the wars in which AI has changed the destiny of the browser are being fought in the browser one after another.

For example, the team behind Manus, which has become popular in the past two days, entered the AI market through browsers. They officially launched the Manus project after the AI browser plug-in had a total of 7 million users.

Dachang also regards browsers as the main battlefield of competition. Microsoft handed over the golden entrance of Edge to Copilot, and 360 used its own browser to push AI crazily. Doubao and Ali simply went to the scene personally and built a browser with the help of AI. In addition, OpenAI recruited members of Chrome’s founding team last year and plans to develop its own browser. Even Perplexity, which has recently become popular, announced that it will soon launch its own browser product Comet.

The former wasteland has become a frontline for intensive exchanges of fire. In this war, the browser may determine the competitive landscape of AI, and AI may also change the destiny of the browser.

01 Fighting around browsers

For two years before the release of Manus, the Monica team had been working around the browser.

In 2022, the explosion of ChatGPT will allow the world to see opportunities for AI. A large number of entrepreneurs have invested in the research and development of basic models, but not everyone is Kai-Fu Lee and can get enough funds to train models. Monica founder Xiao Hong chose a low-threshold entry method: making browser plug-ins.

Monica integrates mainstream large models, which can be roughly understood as browser-side nano-AI search or Perplexity, and can directly call various mainstream models in the browser. Since then, Monica has acquired another browser plug-in, ChatGPT for Google, which can directly call the GPT model in the search box. This plug-in’s rating in the Chrome Store is even higher than OpenAI’s official data, which shows its strength.

It is with these two plug-ins that Monica has accumulated 7 million users. Coupled with the gradual maturity of AI suite technology, Manus came into being. For startups, the browser is a good entry point into the AI battlefield.

AI giants also rely on browsers to fight.

In November 2024, Ultraman announced a major update: real-time web search. As a result, ChatGPT truly has the capabilities of a search engine. A huge application scenario of AI is search, and on the PC side, the browser’s search box has always been the core entry point of search. As a result, OpenAI used browser plug-ins as its important search entry.

After ChatGPT Search was released, Sam Ultraman wrote on X: I’m sorry to keep recommending our products, but I sincerely recommend you upgrade to ChatGPT Plus and install the Chrome extension for search. rdquo; One of the few pop-ups in the ChatGPT application recommends users to change their default search engine to GPT.

Illustration: After installing the GPT plug-in, all inputs in the search box will be imported into ChatGPT

With Ultraman’s personal delivery, GPT quickly occupied the browser search box. In the Chrome store, ChatGPT Search already has more than 2 million users. This data does not include various third-party GPT plug-ins mentioned earlier. Some third-party plug-ins have more official search users than GPT. Even if it is conservatively estimated, the number of ChatGPT plug-in search users may still be more than 10 million.

For giants that already have browsers, the way they promote AI can go a step further than plug-ins: directly making AI plug-ins part of the browser.

Microsoft’s move is the fastest. After the launch of Copilot, Edge added Copilot directly next to the settings button. In January 2024, Microsoft changed the introduction of Edge to an AI-driven browser.

Illustration: Everyone can make plug-ins, but only the browser itself has the power to control the entrance to this location

The integration of Edge and Copilot continues. Last month, Edge Canary disclosed that Microsoft is trying to integrate the Edge browser and Copilot more deeply, including automatically popping up Copilot’s sidebar after opening the browser, giving Copilot greater exposure. No wonder Copilot has become the world’s largest AI application with paid users. It is really hard to support.

Two months after Edge launched the banner of AI browser, Zhou Hongyi also released the concept of 360AI browser in the live broadcast and launched the slogan of the first AI-driven browser.

As one of 360 ‘s most valuable traffic entrances, the 360 browser directly adds an AI application market to the toolbar, namely 360AI Office, to guide various AI functions including AI PPT, AI PDF, and Wensheng videos.

What AI can drive browsers still needs to be explored by manufacturers, but there is no doubt that for manufacturers like Microsoft that have browsers, the advantages of promoting AI are too great. It can completely use bundled sales to let browsers use their own AI model.

02 I made a meal of dumplings for AI’s vinegar

As for manufacturers without browsers? Someone chose to build one themselves.

As other LLMs compete for valuable plug-ins in browsers, the idea of ByteDance is more straightforward: Build your own browser. In June 2024, Doubao officially launched the desktop version of the client.

Desktop clients are nothing new at all. ChatGPT has long launched a desktop version. However, most desktop versions of LLM are like conversation robots with relatively simple functions, while the bean bag desktop version looks more like a browser with added AI functions.

Illustration: Except for the Wenwen Bean Bao in the upper right corner, which reveals the source of the software, it is almost impossible to see that this is an LLM application.

Judging from the desktop interface of bean bag, it is not much different from Chrome browser. One of the few differences is that its home page is a large model of bean buns, and the toolbar integrates a button that leads directly to AI. Such a browser bundled with a home page and preset AI plug-ins is very similar to a joke in the movie “Evil Does Not Overpower the Good”:

In order to order vinegar (homepage, plug-ins), I made a meal of dumplings (browser).

But I have to say that the dumplings made in Doubao are filled with sincerity. It is a fairly complete browser, with favorites, address bar, tabs, history, and basic functions enough to replace Chrome, Edge, and 360. In addition, based on the Chromium core, which has a near-monopoly position in the world, it is easy to complete various extensions and compatibility.

Such a complete browser function can not only promote AI calls, but also have the opportunity to help ByteDance enter a brand new market PC browser through bean bags. If ByteDance can successfully enter the browser market, not only will AI have greater imagination, but also old businesses such as Douyin will have an opportunity for traffic exposure. The drainage has already begun. Now Douyin, Marscode, Tomato Novel, Today’s Headline and other websites have appeared in the default favorites of bean bags.

When it comes to making a browser, Alibaba is earlier than Byte. Long before AI, the online disk product Quark took the lead in turning itself into a cloud software whose main function is a browser, but it is only limited to mobile phones.

Entering the era of big models, quark has also become an important fulcrum of Alibaba AI on the C-end. In August 2024, Quark released a brand new PC-side software. Different from the previous Quark Network Disk, it is also made into a browser like Quark’s mobile APP.

Illustration: Quark’s PC client

Like bean buns, Quark uses the browser as a carrier to bind AI functions to the framework through the search bar and home page. Even Quark’s functions seem to be more abundant. It not only integrates AI search, but also provides a series of functions including PPT, search questions, and resumes. In his suspected statement, Quark used words such as making your computer transform into AI computer and system-level in seconds. Obviously, Quark’s ambitions have gone beyond a browser or an AI conversation robot.

Illustration: Quark’s desktop version of the promotional picture, from which you can see Quark’s huge ambition

Also following the browser AI strategy is OpenAI.

Although ChatGPT plug-ins are very popular in the Chrome market, they are still Google’s territory. How can a real man remain in the shadows for a long time? In November 2024, The Information disclosed that OpenAI was considering launching a new browser. Before that, OpenAI had recruited Ben Goodeger, one of Chrome’s founding team members. OpenAI was very clever. Before this news came out, Google was just asked by antitrust agencies to divest the Chrome browser.

Judging from the existing information, one of the important highlights of this browser is the linkage between AI functions and browser functions. In January this year, OpenAI released Operator, an agent that allows GPT to transcend the definition of a chatbot and can directly perform tasks. For example, if a user enters an instruction to help me purchase XX products, the Operator will click on the required web page itself. If it is in your own browser, the implementation of this ability will undoubtedly be smoother.

Perplexity, another recently popular AI vendor, also announced its entry into the browser space last month, called Comet. According to reports, Comet will be released soon. It is built based on AI agents and has already opened registration appointments.

So far, eight AI vendors, including Open AI, Perplexity, 360, Tencent, Ali, Byte, Google, and Microsoft, all have their own browsers or browser plans. The AI fire has ignited a browser war.

03 Browser is power

Every year, Google pays a fee to rival Apple.

The money is browser-related: It ensures that Apple’s Safari browser uses Google as the default search engine rather than competitors such as Bing. Google has paid a lot for this. In 2022, this fee will reach US$20 billion, and 36% of Safari’s revenue that year will come from this fee.

Although the rising cycle has long passed, the commercial value of the browser is still very considerable because it holds the power of two key traffic entrances: the home page and the search bar. It is through these two entrances that Apple is able to receive a huge sum of money from Google every year. Google can also better maintain its hegemony in the search market through Chrome.

And there are no browser flaws, Baidu knows best.

According to StatCounter’s data, in March 2024, Bing’s market share on the desktop reached 37.4%, surpassing Baidu by 10 percentage points, becoming the number one desktop browser product in the domestic market share.

The key factor leading to this situation is that there must be a browser.

When Edge wants to promote its own search engine, it will constantly pop-up windows to remind users to change the default settings. As long as the user determines, the browser’s default search will become Bing. From the user’s perspective, my search engine has always inexplicably changed from Baidu to Bing. In addition to Bing, 360 and Sogou are also threatening Baidu’s market share on the PC side through their browser power.

The logic of search engines naturally applies equally in the era of AI search.

For example, after users install the GPT plug-in on Chrome, the browser will remind them whether to switch the search engine back to Google. After all, Google relies on searching to earn advertising fees and will not easily hand over users to OpenAI.

Perhaps this is why OpenAI wants to make its own browser. Although so far, Chrome has not promoted Gemini with great efforts, it is conceivable that once Google deeply integrates Gemini into Chrome, the Chrome ecosystem built by GPT relying on various plug-ins will inevitably be overwhelmed.

While browsers affect AI, AI is also affecting browsers.

The current browser competition is becoming a competition around AI. According to StatCounter, among desktop browsers, Microsoft’s Edge browser’s market share will surpass Apple’s Safari in December 2023, becoming the second largest browser in the world after Chrome. Obviously, many users are switching to Edge for Copilot. After all, a browser that deeply integrates ChatGPT or bean bag is still attractive to users.

Arc’s choice also illustrates the trend of the browser market. In early 2024, Arc, a browser owned by The Browser Company, carried out a major AI transformation, completely subverted the traditional search logic, adopted AI logic, and directly provided users with answers. This change made Arc famous and became a world-renowned emerging browser.

Perhaps having tasted the sweetness of AI, Arc made a big decision in October last year: to stop updates to Arc’s browser, restart a new project, and make a product that is completely driven by AI. CEO Josh Miller used us not even sure whether it can still be called a browser to describe their new product. Obviously, the core of this new product is already AI tools.

The desktop browser market has been silent for many years. Several major players are chasing each other, but no one can complete the subversion of the landscape. The arrival of AI has stirred up this calm water. The trend of both AI and browsers, Perhaps both will change because of each other. nbsp;