Unique Research · Ranking / AIGC monthly · October 23, 2023 · Author Gisele · Review Qiuping
Key takeaways
- Global vs China chatbots diverged in September. ChatGPT and Google Bard saw modest visit growth; Claude and Poe fell more than 6% MoM. In China’s Top 50 AI apps by visits, 9 were chatbots; among the growth Top 10, 7 were chatbots, and over 85% of those grew more than 50%.
- Chatbots dominate total visits in both global and China AI app lists. Domestically they hold about half of Top-50 traffic; ChatGPT still leads globally and accounts for >60% of Top-50 monthly visits.
- AI-native apps are the majority of traffic. Across domestic, go-global, and global lists, most products are AI-native — >80% did not exist a year ago; domestic and go-global lists exceed 90% AI-native.
- Many niches still have room to catch up. Outside chatbots and research tools, #1 vs runners-up gaps are often small; concentration is low.
- Global categories are more diversified. China’s Top 50 concentrate in chatbots, design, and image gen (~50% of names, >80% of traffic). Global Top 50 spreads traffic across more categories.
Global AI app traffic
(Charts: Global Top 50 by visits · category mix · MoM growth Top 50 — attach CN images on import.)
ChatGPT remains #1 globally and takes ~60% of Top-50 monthly visits. It had crossed 100M MAU by end-January — among the fastest consumer apps ever — with MoM growth of ~131.6% (Jan), 62.5% (Feb), 55.8% (Mar), then decelerating.
Similarweb notes that major chatbot peers also softened: novelty around AI chat is fading; products must prove ongoing value. One material use case is homework help — summer university breaks cut ChatGPT traffic sharply; September’s back-to-school rebound lifted visits again.
Global Top 50 has only 5 chatbot products (including China’s Baidu ERNIE Bot / Wenxin Yiyan). Chatbot MoM growth is muted globally, while China’s high-growth (>50%) names cluster almost entirely in chatbots — suggesting China’s “ChatGPT habit” wave is still building via local alternatives.
Education AI led September global growth: Q-Chat +88.18%, CheggMate +110.8%, Turnitin +51.6% — vertical products plus network effects among students and teachers. Writing tools QuillBot Paraphrasing and Grammarly ranked high with +19.25% and +9.09%. China’s writing tools (Mita Writing Cat, Yizhuan, Baidu Duka Creator, Biling AI Writing) mostly ranked lower and, aside from Biling’s +6.35%, saw declines.
Other modest gainers included Canva, Perplexity AI, Miro, PLAN by Ixigo, Replit, WolframAlpha, Gamma, LanguageTool, Adobe Firefly. PLAN by Ixigo (AI travel planning) has no China Top-50 peer yet.
China-origin names in the global Top 50 include Wenxin Yiyan, go-global image tool Fotor, and Cutout.pro. While most global chatbots were flat or down, Wenxin Yiyan grew +63.19%. Wenxin opened to the public in August (App Store / Android / web); Baidu said the app hit #1 free on the App Store within 12 hours — first Chinese AI-native app to do so.
China AI app traffic
(Charts: Domestic Top 50 · category mix · growth Top 10.)
Vs August, many September visit totals softened — except chatbots, which dominated growth Top 10 with 7 of 10 slots. Baidu Wenxin Yiyan, iFlytek Spark, Zhipu Qingyan, 360 Zhinao Chat, and Baidu Chat each grew >1.5× MoM.
Domestic Top 50 is concentrated: 9 chatbots take >70% of traffic; Top 10 includes 8 chatbots. Globally, no single category exceeds ~5 names; China can stack 11 in one category.
Non-chatbot gainers skew to large groups: Kunlun Tech’s Tiangong AI Search, Huawei MindSpore, Alibaba Duiyou, Meitu Design Studio, WPS AI. Startup gainers despite a soft month — Infinite Canvas (Pintu), MasterGo AI, ChatPPT (BiYou), Biling AI Writing, Laipaint — suggest mature product shape and PLG-driven organic growth.
Baichuan Intelligence (founded Apr 10 by former Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan) shipped three general LLMs within four months, cleared China’s generative-AI filing, and opened to the public from Aug 31. On Sep 6 it open-sourced Baichuan2-7B / 13B / 13B-Chat and 4-bit variants (commercial-use free), plus training checkpoints, and announced a Baichuan 2 tech report. Baichuan 2 led LLaMA2 on multiple evals and saw 300%+ September growth. On Sep 25 it released closed Baichuan2-53B with an OpenAI-compatible API for easier migration.
Go-global AI app traffic
(Chart: Go-global Top 20.)
Image/video processing and generation make up ~45% of the go-global Top 20. Fotor (#1) and Vocal Remover (#3) grew modestly (+0.55% / +0.2%). Double-digit gainers (>15%): digital-human short video HeyGen (+91.77% MoM — standout), Japan-focused meeting transcription Notta, one-click cutout Pixian.AI, doc Q&A ChatDOC, Wondershare DemoCreator.