Baidu, China’s leading internet company, has announced that its AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, has surpassed a staggering 200 million users in just eight months since its public release. This impressive milestone cements Ernie Bot’s position as the most popular ChatGPT-like chatbot in China, but the company faces growing competition in this rapidly evolving market.
Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, revealed the user base figures at a conference today. He also highlighted the chatbot’s extensive use, with its application programming interface (API) being called upon a staggering 200 million times daily. This signifies the diverse tasks users are employing Ernie Bot for. Li further revealed that the number of businesses utilizing the chatbot has reached a significant 85,000.
Ernie Bot holds the distinction of being the first domestically developed large language model (LLM) unveiled in China last March. However, it wasn’t until August that it received official approval for public use, making it one of the first eight AI chatbots to be greenlit by the Chinese government. Unlike many other countries, China enforces strict regulations, requiring companies to obtain government approval before launching generative AI services.
While Ernie Bot enjoys a strong user base, recent data suggests that rival AI services are catching up quickly. Notably, Kimi, a chatbot developed by the Alibaba-backed startup Moonshot AI, has gained significant traction despite receiving official approval later in November. Data from AIcpb.com, a website tracking user visits to online AI services, reveals that Kimi is not far behind Ernie Bot in terms of user traffic. While Ernie Bot saw a respectable 48% increase in visits last month, Kimi surged by an impressive 321.6% compared to February.
On a global scale, Chinese AI chatbots still have ground to cover. OpenAI’s ChatGPT remains the undisputed leader, attracting a staggering 1.86 billion visits last month, according to AIcpb.com. This highlights the intense competition Baidu faces not only domestically but also internationally.
The race for AI chatbot dominance in China is heating up. While Ernie Bot boasts a significant user base, Baidu will need to continue innovating and expanding its capabilities to maintain its position as a leader in this dynamic market.
Image— Medium.com
