GuShiio.com Wen| Snow Leopard Financial Society, author 丨 Wu Zi
On the first Sunday after Valentine’s Day, the topic of the WeChat DeepSeek Wang Chao group hit the hot search on Weibo.
Some users have found that by clicking AI search on the WeChat search interface and selecting Deep Thinking-R1, they can use the DeepSeek-R1 model to search for content for free. This feature is still under testing and can only be seen by some users.
This news has made Tencent one of the recently sought-after DeepSeek concept stocks. On February 17, Tencent Holdings opened 6.57% higher at HK$506 and regained HK$500, setting a new high since July 2021.
With DeepSeek to deeply explore ecological advantages, WeChat and even Tencent may open up new imagination.
Source: Tencent Financial Report
Ten years of long search
WeChat search, which has attracted much attention due to its access to DeepSeek, has actually been around for more than ten years. As early as June 2014, WeChat launched the search function, but the initial function was very single, allowing only chat history to be searched.
Source: WeChat
In the following years, as the WeChat ecosystem gradually prospered, the boundaries of WeChat search capabilities have also been broadened, and public account articles, Mini programs, emoticons, Short Video and other content have been included. In order to enhance users ‘awareness of search functions, in May 2017, WeChat officially launched a search portal.
WeChat code search is not only to connect the complex content libraries in the ecosystem, but also to see that the search business contains huge commercial value and hope to become an important entry point in the mobile Internet era.
As one of the oldest businesses in the Internet industry, the business model of search is clear and efficient because users are very clear. Take Baidu as an example. Although it has deployed smart driving, cloud computing and other businesses in recent years, the advertising business with search as the main carrier is still an important performance pillar. In Q3 of 2024, Baidu’s online marketing business revenue was 18.8 billion yuan, accounting for 56% of revenue.
Entering the era of mobile Internet, data islands have emerged, making it difficult for traditional search engines to capture the content of platforms such as Weixin Official Accounts, Today’s Headlines, and Pianduo. Tencent, 360, Ali, and ByteDance giants saw the opportunity and launched or upgraded their search services in an attempt to get a piece of the action. For example, since 2020, ByteDance has launched products such as Headline Search, Wukong Search, Lightning Search, and Douyin Search.
Source: StatCounter
In the past few years, search products have emerged one after another. National-level apps such as WeChat and Today’s Headline have continued to strengthen search functions, but none of them have shaken Baidu’s status in the world.
StatCounter data shows that in January 2025, in China’s search market, Baidu’s market share was 47.07%, and in the mobile search market, Baidu’s market share was as high as 58.6%. To a large extent, it shows that existing solutions are difficult to bring down Baidu.
A completely new way of solving problems
In early February this year, Zhu Xiaohu, managing director of Jinshajiang Venture Capital, praised DeepSeek generously in an interview: In the PC Internet era, search was the first Killer App to come out. Today, the first Killer App released in the AI era is also search. rdquo;
AI search supported by large models can understand user intentions through AI technology, efficiently sort out massive information on the entire network, and then generate accurate content, effectively avoiding pain points such as too many advertisements and miscellaneous information in traditional search.
Left: WeChat AI search; right: Baidu
After experiencing it, Snow Leopard Financial Society found that AI search does have stronger advantages compared with traditional search engines on some issues.
For example, we threw the question of briefly introducing the latest dancing videos of Yushu robots to WeChat AI Search and Baidu. The former gave a detailed introduction to the facts and the technical principles behind them, which could bring a better user experience.
Traditional search companies represented by Baidu and Google, major Internet companies represented by 360 and Tencent, and start-ups represented by Mita have added their AI search-related products.
On February 3, Nano AI search took the lead and became the first search engine in China to access the full-blooded version of DeepSeek-R1. Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Group, also spared no effort to promote nano-AI search by appearing in short dramas, appearing in variety shows, and giving away 100 domestic new energy vehicles for free.
At the Nano AI Search for New Energy Vehicles event held on February 12, Zhou Hongyi revealed that Nano AI Search accumulated 20 million users during the Spring Festival, which was the best achievement achieved by 360 in the wireless Internet era. rdquo;
What does WeChat rely on to break the situation?
The ability of AI to search is proportional to the size of the base model. Previously, Internet giants only needed to deepen closed-source models and improve the model’s material analysis and reasoning capabilities to build a deep moat in the field of AI search.
DeepSeek’s open source largely summarizes the underlying capabilities of AI search products. After experiencing the experience, Snow Leopard Financial Society found that the same question was thrown to multiple AI search engines connected to DeepSeek, such as Baidu AI Search, Nano AI Search, and Minita AI Search, and the results were highly similar.
Although it is highly similar to other products in terms of underlying technology, as a national social software, WeChat relies on its unique ecological advantages such as public accounts, video accounts, and Mini programs. WeChat AI search may greatly broaden the content dimension of AI search feedback and build a closed-loop ecological experience: starting from searching information and ending with purchasing goods, services or solutions.
For example, ask how to reserve tickets to the Forbidden City?& rdquo; If the WeChat AI search can directly add links to the Palace Museum’s Mini programs in the answer, users can complete the appointment with one click.
The above business model is not a simple guess, but WeChat’s consistent strategic orientation. At the 2020 WeChat Open Class PRO, Zhang Xiaolong, founder of WeChat and senior vice president of Tencent, mentioned that we have a dream of making Mini programs and hope that search can enter the interior of every Mini programs, so that a large number of Mini programs can support various long-tailed search needs. rdquo;
Traditional search engines are difficult to penetrate into Mini programs, but the open source DeepSeek can efficiently match user needs with the services of massive Weixin Mini Programs in vertical scenarios.
As Zhang Xiaolong said, many people are unwilling to take the initiative to obtain information, but prefer to obtain it passively. rdquo;
Can WeChat AI search, which can greatly reduce the cost of obtaining information for users, stage its own surprise moment like Weixin Pay?
