Background and Positioning

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has built the most popular AI chatbot in China, Doubao, which was launched in 2023 and quickly amassed more than 157 million monthly active users. In parallel, ByteDance released an overseas counterpart called Cici, featuring a similar cartoon avatar with longer hair. Cici is region‑locked and not available in China or the United States, making it less visible than its domestic sibling.

Marketing Strategy

ByteDance is financing advertising campaigns and partnering with influencers to promote Cici in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other Southeast Asian markets. Meta’s Ad Library shows that Cici ran over 400 different ads in Mexico during October, highlighting its ability to solve math problems and its free‑to‑use model. Similar ad efforts are active in the United Kingdom and the Philippines. On TikTok, creators in these regions have posted dozens of sponsored videos using the hashtag #ciciai, further driving awareness.

App Performance and Rankings

These marketing pushes have translated into noticeable download spikes. Sensor Tower data indicates that Cici has ranked within the top 20 most downloaded free apps on the Google Play Store in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Mexico, and the United Kingdom over the past three months. In Mexico, Cici has been the most downloaded free app on Google Play every day for the past week, and in the United Kingdom it reached the ninth‑most‑popular free app slot in Apple’s App Store on a recent Thursday.

Technology Stack and Features

Cici’s privacy policy reveals that it incorporates technology from other ByteDance‑owned platforms such as the photo editor PicPic and the coding assistant Coze. For text generation, Cici relies on OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s Gemini rather than ByteDance’s proprietary large language models. The app’s interface mirrors Doubao’s design, allowing users to chat via text or audio, generate and analyze images, and experiment with autonomous agents created by other users. However, Cici does not yet support music or video generation, and users cannot share their creations directly on the platform.

Strategic Outlook and Challenges

Since TikTok’s global success, ByteDance has struggled to replicate that impact with another product. While Cici’s influence remains far below Doubao’s domestic dominance, its rapid ascent in several markets demonstrates ByteDance’s willingness to spend heavily on user acquisition. Without the protective Chinese internet regulations that limit competition from Western AI players, ByteDance will need to compete directly with companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

Dermot McGrath, a Shanghai‑based investor and technologist, observes, "Chinese AI companies are probably better positioned than Western ones to build consumer products people actually want to use. Neither Google nor OpenAI have mastered the kind of dopamine‑driven engagement that ByteDance built TikTok on." Nonetheless, Cici faces unique hurdles in the fragmented global AI app market, where cultural preferences and economic habits shape user choices. Perceptions of ByteDance as an extension of the Chinese government raise concerns about data security and political propaganda. McGrath adds, "Unless they can navigate the geopolitical landscape or partner with Western companies," ByteDance’s advantages may remain "largely confined to China and maybe other Asian markets."

Usado: News Factory APP - descoberta e automação de notícias - ChatGPT para Empresas