Tencent, owner of the WeChat super-app, faces growing questions over whether it is falling behind in China's artificial intelligence race, CNA reports. Its Yuanbao chatbot had about 50 million monthly users in June, against 382 million for ByteDance's Doubao, according to analytics firm QuestMobile, and investor worries have weighed on its Hong Kong-listed shares.
Analysts told the broadcaster that China's AI market is crowded and fragmented, with newcomers such as Zhipu briefly valued above HK$1 trillion this year. They described Tencent's leadership as more deliberate than rivals such as Alibaba and ByteDance. Rui Ma of Tech Buzz China said WeChat, with more than 1.4 billion monthly users, is so embedded in daily life that introducing AI features without problems is very hard and expensive, though its ecosystem and gaming arm could still give Tencent an edge.
Source: CNA