DeepSeek provokes a “secret battle” between Xiaohongshu and Baidu in in-depth search

Photo source: Visual China

Blue Whale News, February 28 (Reporter Zhu Junxi)Nearly a month after DeepSeek topped the free app rankings, DeepSeek’s in-depth thinking model has gradually become the basic configuration of various AI applications.“”

Regarding whether to connect their main AI applications to the DeepSeek model, domestic Internet manufacturers have shown two camps. One category, represented by Baidu and Tencent, has been launched in AI assistants Wen Xiaoyan and Yuanbao after the Spring Festival.DeepSeek based services.Alibaba and ByteDance symbolize another faction, and AI applications still rely on them.Self-developed model tiltCurrently, DeepSeek is only connected to its own office software, Nail and Flybook.

This week, Ali launched a new reasoning model, Deep Thinking (QwQ), and said it will soon release Android and iOS apps.Blue Whale News recently learned exclusively that Byte’s AI assistant Doubao is testing the deep thinking model on a small scale, but it is not connected to DeepSeek, but different experimental versions of its own deep thinking model.Later, LatePost reported that Byte AI video generation product Dream is considering using DeepSeek.

Blue Whale News found thatDiandian, an AI search application owned by another major Internet company Xiaohongshu, has recently launched a low-key in-depth thinking model.Judging from the official announcement information of Xiaohongshu, it is connected to the DeepSeek-R1 open source model. Diandian’s official account on Xiaohongshu also posted that DeepSeek×Xiaohongshu = Diandian will combine the real life experience of hundreds of millions of people in Xiaohongshu with Diandian’s in-depth thinking model to provide users with answers.

Photo source: Xiaohongshu Diandian account

With the whirlwind set off by DeepSeek, competition in the AI search field is accelerating, or a new round of reshuffle is brewing. As deep thinking gradually evolves into basic capabilities, the battlefield of AI search will eventually fall into the competition for ecological barriers and scenario penetration.

Xiaohongshu tries the water with a low-key tone and thinks deeply, and it is difficult to break the circle with independent application.”

Since OpenAI took the lead in releasing inference models, domestic large model manufacturers have begun to catch up technically. Since November last year, DeepSeek, Dark Side of the Moon, Intelligent AI, etc. have successively launched similar reasoning models.

But DeepSeek was the first to incorporate the thinking chain of the reasoning model into the generated replies, allowing users to see the complete thinking process of the model. To a certain extent, the disclosure of the thought chain has also promoted DeepSeek’s exit from the circle and strengthened the interactive experience between humans and AI. Since then, not only did domestic AI applications quickly follow up, but also forced OpenAI to disclose a simplified version of the o3-mini series of thinking chains.

The dots of the new in-depth thinking model this time also present the thinking chain in the generated content.“” Take the question of helping me make a two-day tour plan to Kyoto, Japan, which should include traditional cultural experiences as an example. The response received under the in-depth thinking mode is obviously more suitable for the needs. At the same time, it will combine real-time information to give advice on transportation, accommodation, food, etc., while the response provided by the normal mode is relatively more general.“”

Image source: Dot screenshot

The little updates can be said to continue Xiaohongshu’s low-key style in exploring AI products. While other Internet companies are launching AI applications on a large scale, Xiaohongshu has only silently launched several AI products, including AI dialogue assistant Da Vinci, and Sososhu, which provides AI search summaries.Most of these functions are built into its APP, and the entrance is relatively hidden and does not reach a wide user base.

Diandian is a new attempt by Xiaohongshu. In addition to the on-site account, it also has independent apps and Weixin Mini Programs outside the station. It focuses on life search and provides users with smart answers about eating, drinking and having fun. It is also more active in promotion and marketing. At the end of last year, it launched an activity to ask for advice from outside, relying on Xiaohongshu traffic and cash support to attract users.

However, in terms of sound volume, there is obviously a big gap between Diandian, an emerging AI application and Xiaohongshu. According to Qimai data from the mobile application data analysis platform, Diandian APP has an estimated total download volume of approximately 210,000 times since its launch in August 2024, ranking outside the 90th among efficiency free applications recently. The Xiaohongshu APP has steadily ranked first among free social apps, with an estimated number of downloads exceeding 420,000 times in the past week.

Some users bluntly stated in the Diandian Deep Thinking Experience Group that they should refer to the WeChat AI search form and embed deep thinking directly into the Xiaohongshu APP.“If it is like nano AI search plug-in Xiaohongbook data, personally feel that it is difficult to break the circle.& rdquo;

Embrace DeepSeek, AI search fights again

The AI search battlefield has been full of smoke. In addition to start-ups that specifically target this track, players entering the game also include traditional search giants, big model companies, etc. Among them, the reason why Diandian’s related actions have attracted much attention is because it relies on Xiaohongshu, a new search upstart, and has great potential.

From a data point of view, the average daily search volume of Xiaohongshu in the fourth quarter of 2024 reached 600 million, which is close to Baidu’s billions of searches. While traditional search engines such as Baidu and Google have used AI to transform search services, Xiaohongshu is also making its attempts through new products such as Sososhu and Diandian.Little Red Book COO Conan once said in a public event at the end of 2023 that many users are using Little Red Book as a search engine, and how to use AI to better drive search is very important.

Some AI search developers have previously told Blue Whale News that for AI search, the gap in engineering training and modeling capabilities will become smaller and smaller, and exclusive and high-quality information corpus will become a key factor affecting search results. barrier. andThe domestic search ecosystem is fragmented, and giants tend to keep information and content in their own isolated islands.

For example, when using Diandian to conduct AI search, most of the web pages based on them are Xiaohongshu notes, and this information is difficult to obtain on other AI search platforms. ldquo; Diandian’s advantage is that it can retrieve Xiaohongshu’s posts, but it is difficult to retrieve these life-style experience posts. rdquo; A Little Red Book user said in the Diandian Deep Thinking Experience Group that sometimes it really depends on whether the large model can retrieve information in a specific direction before it is used.” rdquo;

Image source: Dot screenshot

Another content ecosystem with unique and high-quality sources, but relatively closed, is WeChat. When Tencent launched its AI assistant Yuan Bao in May last year, its main differentiated advantage was that Yuan Bao covered the WeChat ecosystem and could call Weixin Official Accounts, video numbers and other content during search. However, in the already crowded AI assistant track, Yuanbao has always been a bit tepid, and the user scale has long lagged behind similar products such as Byte Bean Bao and Kimi on the Dark Side of the Moon.

It was not until DeepSeek became a global craze that Tencent, which had always been conservative, suddenly became radical in AI applications.In the past half month, Yuan Bao has successively launched a full-blooded version of the DeepSeek-R1 model and a self-developed deep thinking model Mixed Origin T1. It will also gradually launch another fast thinking model Mixed Origin Turbo S in gray scale. On February 15, Tencent also connected the DeepSeek-R1 model for WeChat search. Later, as WeChat users became more enthusiastic about using the DeepSeek model than expected, Tencent urgently coordinated and deployed it internally, calling Yuanbao to support WeChat search, and using Yuanbao as another entry option.

Tencent has also begun to significantly increase its investment in Yuanbao.According to DataEye, a data service provider, before February 5, the amount of materials put in by Kimi, Doubao and Yuanbao was significantly stratified, and there was a large gap. However, since February 18, the release of Yuanbao has increased significantly, and the amount of materials released in 6 days has increased by 345.1% month-on-month. Thanks to this blessing, Yuanbao has gradually climbed up in the app list, second only to DeepSeek APP.

Photo source: DataEye

Whether it is the rise of many AI search rookies or the exploration of super traffic portals such as WeChat, it will further occupy the market space of traditional search overlord Baidu.Sources close to Baidu confirmed to Blue Whale News that at the MEG (Mobile Ecosystem Business Group) all-staff meeting held this month, Luo Rong, the person in charge, said that Baidu’s development in 2024 will be slow, and the growth rate will be far less than that of competition, or even negative.

Baidu’s latest fourth-quarter financial report showed that revenue from its online marketing business with advertising services as its core decreased by 7% year-on-year to 17.9 billion yuan, a wider decline than the previous quarter. Luo Rong said at the earnings call that the advertising business is near bottom and its performance is expected to pick up this year. One of the reasons is the growth opportunities brought by AI search. We have not yet realized the profitability of AI-generated search results on a large scale. Currently, such results account for about 22% of the total query volume. Once our AI-driven search capabilities are fully optimized, we will advance the profitability process with higher-quality user products.& rdquo; Luo Rong said.

As one of the earliest companies in China to deploy AI, Baidu has been trying to use AI to transform search. But with the emergence of DeepSeek, it has almost become synonymous with AI in the eyes of the public, which seems to put Baidu in an awkward situation.

Recently, Baidu has made frequent searches. First, fully connected DeepSeek, and then changed Slogan back to the original version of Baidu, you will know. How to explore AI search monetization while maintaining user fundamentals may become the key to its breakthrough this year.