Doubao "Plugs" into WeChat's Heartland

Doubao achieved a DAU breakthrough of 100 million with the lowest promotion cost;

It is quietly changing the competitive landscape of AI to C.

This product integrates into users' lives by lowering the barrier to use;

From homework supervision to clothing coordination, it has spawned self-generated viral topics.

More crucially, Doubao is connecting ByteDance's ecosystem services through a plugin model;

Its growth logic has shifted from traffic irrigation to capability reuse;

This battle for the entry point is reshaping the fundamentals of competition among tech giants.

Over the past few months, Alibaba has launched successive fierce attacks in the AI to C battlefield with products like Qianwen, Afu, and Lingguang;

Simultaneously, it integrated ecosystem resources from Taobao, Alipay, Gaode, and Fliggy;

Building an intelligent agent that connects the entire consumption chain.

In contrast, ByteDance's Doubao has been much more subdued in its声势;

It hasn't engaged in massive traffic buying like Alibaba;

Nor has it loudly announced new features like Tencent's Yuanbao;

Yet Doubao itself frequently "breaks out of the circle."

Recently, topics like Doubao helping match clothes and Doubao supervising children's homework have taken turns trending on热搜;

Becoming veritable traffic passwords.

More importantly, these were not official promotions;

But topics spontaneously created and actively shared by users.

Sometimes, user reactions might explain market changes better than financial reports.

In this battle for the super entry point of the AI era, the giants are using various strategies;

Alibaba builds ecosystems, Tencent guards entry points;

But Doubao, which is quietly winning hearts, should not be underestimated.

01 When in Doubt, Ask AI

In December 2025, according to 36Kr reports, Doubao's Daily Active Users (DAU) broke through the 100 million mark.

ByteDance insiders revealed that Doubao's market promotion costs were the lowest among all ByteDance products that reached 100 million DAU.

As a "veteran player" among major tech companies' AI-native applications, Doubao began public testing in August 2023;

And officially launched services in May 2024.

Subsequently, Doubao also tried buying market share with money, with monthly投放金额 once reaching hundreds of millions of yuan.

However, after experiencing a rocket-like traffic buying phase, starting from the second half of 2024, Doubao's投放规模 began to收敛.

It reduced单纯 buy量投放;

Instead fully utilizing ByteDance's own traffic ecosystem, including restricting competitors'投放 within the ByteDance system;

Concentrating advertising resources on its own products.

By December 2024, Doubao's MAU scale had reached 75 million.

After this, Kimi, Tencent Yuanbao, and Alibaba Qianwen took turns becoming the "投放之王."

According to data from DataEye Research Institute's ADX industry version, in November last year, domestic native AI products投放素材891,000 groups;

Among them, Tencent Yuanbao accounted for 46%, Qianwen 34%, and Doubao only 11%.

Doubao's投入强度 was about one-third that of Yuanbao and Qianwen.

Although Doubao's投流 is no longer "fierce," its user scale continues to grow steadily.

In November 2025, Doubao topped China's AI application MAU ranking with 272 million MAU;

Tencent Yuanbao ranked fourth with 53.05 million;

The late-starting Qianwen also came on strong;

Since its launch in November last year, it achieved growth from millions to hundreds of millions in MAU within just two months.

But in terms of DAU performance, which better reflects user stickiness, Doubao still leads.

According to Quest Mobile data, as of December 2025, in DAU scale仅 via the App channel;

Doubao was about 70 million, Tencent Yuanbao below 10 million, and Qianwen had not yet reached 5 million.

The competition in the AI to C battlefield is far from over;

But with the continuous growth of user scale, AI is gradually reshaping Chinese internet usage habits;

The most obvious manifestation is changing from "when in doubt, ask Baidu" in the past to "when in doubt, ask AI."

According to the latest report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC);

Over 40% of netizens have begun to use "asking AI" as one of their首选 ways to obtain information;

This proportion exceeds 60% among Generation Z groups.

Traditional search behavior is quietly changing;

The heavy investment by tech giants is precisely to seize new user mindsets in this入口迁移;

But currently, Doubao has the most路人缘.

In terms of technical capabilities, perhaps Doubao's large model technology cannot match Alibaba's;

In terms of user scale, Douyin's user base is not as large as WeChat's;

There are also professional players like Deepseek and Kimi;

But Doubao偏偏 can get involved in everything.

Doubao doesn't deliberately pursue tool attributes;

Instead, by lowering the usage threshold, it targets the broad普通用户.

Simply put, Doubao doesn't make users adapt to AI;

But makes AI actively integrate into users' lives.

Because of this, from students to office workers, from宝妈 to the silver-haired generation;

Users of all ages can quickly embrace AI;

And spontaneously develop all kinds of奇奇怪怪 usage scenarios;

Some use it to simulate a head teacher催促作业;

Some make it扮演前任道歉;

Some elderly people treat Doubao as a赛博 child...

Netizens joke that humanity has developed less than 1% of Doubao's potential.

02 The "Plug-in-ized" Doubao

In this battle for the entry point of the AI era, Doubao has already obtained the first admission ticket.

It can even be said that Doubao has become ByteDance's new traffic入口 for the next decade.

Although Doubao's current user scale still has a gap compared to ByteDance's number one application Douyin;

In terms of absolute growth rate, Doubao显然要更胜一筹.

Moreover, Doubao's growth now no longer单纯 relies on ByteDance's traffic灌溉;

It can even反向导流 to ByteDance's other businesses.

Observant users have already noticed that Doubao is becoming more "多才多艺."

For example, functions like Spark Music and Doubao Aixue have been added to Doubao's main chat interface.

Taking Spark Music as an example, users only need to输入 keywords like "play music" in Doubao's chat interface;

To call up the Spark Music card.

Earlier, Doubao began attempting to integrate Douyin Mall into Doubao;

When users ask "which hydrating面膜 is best to use", Doubao will recommend multiple products;

Users can click the蓝链 to jump to the mall for purchase.

Have you noticed that this model of "plug-in-izing" third-party services is somewhat similar to WeChat's "Mini Programs"?

Looking back at the爆发历程 of WeChat Mini Programs, their initial name was "Application Account";

Zhang Xiaolong designed this function with the初衷 that users should not only stay on Official Accounts or Subscription Accounts;

But be able to call more new capabilities on WeChat.

But initially, the public's感知 of Mini Programs was not strong;

The转折点 was a small game called "Jump Jump";

This super simple game attracted over 400 million users to participate;

Also cultivating users' habit of jumping to other functions through WeChat.

The current Doubao is恰好处于类似的临界点;

It is cultivating users' habit of "when in doubt, ask AI."

When users become accustomed to using Doubao as an入口 to different functions;

The traffic Doubao can allocate is even richer than Douyin's;

Not just entertainment needs, but also learning,办公, shopping, health, and other needs;

Traffic conversion efficiency is higher.

It can be said that the "plug-in-ized" Doubao and the "use and leave" Mini Programs;

Are本质上 both hoping to further降低 users' calling成本;

You don't need to remember独立 applications like Spark Music and Doubao Aixue;

You only need to remember the behavioral habit of "ask Doubao";

In the future, users may not even need to提出明确需求;

AI can also make智能推荐 through context and user habits.

Before this, ByteDance also had multiple尝试 in competing for traffic入口;

From the early "APP factory" model密集推出各类垂直应用;

To personally entering the smart hardware field;

To推出 "Doubao phone" attempting to take over APPs through the底层系统.

Although the ByteDance ecosystem never lacks traffic;

It lacks complete生态闭环 like payment and social networking;

It has always been difficult to再造一个流量中心 outside of Douyin;

Traffic flows out from Douyin but doesn't return to Douyin;

Making it difficult to form a正向循环.

However, with the rise of Doubao, ByteDance sees another possibility;

Using AI capabilities as the核心, based on Doubao围绕 ByteDance's existing businesses and potential businesses for尝试;

Developing more new AI modules, continuously strengthening Doubao's服务调度能力.

For example, on Douyin, users can use Doubao to generate short video content;

In Tomato Novel, users can use Doubao to generate novel续写, character settings;

In Feishu, Doubao can automatically organize meeting minutes, assign to-do items, etc.

ByteDance no longer执着于 letting each product独自 "create hit products";

But lets Doubao生长出更多新的 "AI capabilities";

Through跨产品,跨场景的AI能力复用, driving overall user growth.

03 A Hidden Confrontation

The outside world always习惯 viewing ByteDance and Alibaba as两大劲敌 in the AI era;

Actually, Doubao's threat to WeChat should also not be underestimated.

Of course, it's not easy for Doubao to动摇微信根基.

After all, the strength of the腾讯生态 is not just because of user scale;

But the complex数字信用体系 and social关系网 behind it.

But the seeds have been planted;

ByteDance and腾讯之间 have already展开连场交锋.

Last year, Doubao以更轻量化的工具形态,悄然对微信发起突袭;

It launched "Doubao Input Method", "intercepting" new users in WeChat chat windows;

Launched "Doubao AI Cloud Drive",精准击中 the痛点 of WeChat file transfer有效期.

Recently, after火山引擎 announced becoming the exclusive AI cloud partner for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala;

Tencent Yuanbao also began counterattacking;

It started内测 of the social gameplay "Yuanbao Pai";

And announced it will distribute 1 billion现金红包 during the Spring Festival.

It is值得注意 that, different from Tencent's approach last year of构建AI生态 within WeChat;

This time Tencent显然更希望将 Yuanbao拎出来 from the WeChat system;

Turning it into an独立APP that users are willing to主动打开 and use高频.

"Yuanbao Pai" is one of the functions in the bottom tab栏 of Yuanbao;

Users click to enter "Pai" and can directly对话 with "Pai";

Functions like共享屏幕,一起看电影,一起听音乐 will soon be灰度上线.

Additionally, "Pai"打通了 WeChat, QQ, and other社交软件;

Users can随时邀请他人加入;

Compared with Doubao and Qianwen, "Yuanbao Pai" incorporates社交玩法;

Also has the野心 of再造一个 "AI WeChat".

It can be seen that Doubao is quickly testing user needs and market反应 through more灵活的产品功能迭代.

Different from Alibaba and Tencent倾向在自身生态内找答案;

Doubao has no "历史包袱",反而更能大胆尝试.

To some extent, a庞大的生态体系 is固然 the platform's "保护伞";

But it can also become a burden for innovation.

Alibaba率先意识到这一点, from the second half of last year开始 "化零为整";

Further打通生态内不同产品的壁垒, forming a new强大合力.

Tencent wants to杀出重围凭借社交优势;

"Yuanbao Pai" as the首个 product deeply integrating AI technology with多人社交;

Its performance is also值得期待.

The new year, the AI大战也翻到了新一页;

Doubao发力生活化场景, Alibaba plays the consumption生态 card,腾讯则试图重塑社交...

Currently, the各大厂侧重的路线并不相同;

But as competition develops to the下半场;

Everyone本质上 is still奔向同一个目标;

That is, how to让用户更丝滑地调用生态内不同场景的内容,服务和技术能力.

胜负未分,但格局已变.

只是, Doubao能否继续保持领先优势;

Qianwen and腾讯能否沿着自身生态长出新的能力;

These即将发生的故事,才更加让人期待.

豆包“插”向微信腹地

豆包以最低的推广成本实现DAU破亿，正在悄然改变AI to C的竞争格局。

这款产品通过降低使用门槛融入用户生活，从作业监督到服装搭配催生出自发传播的热点。

更关键的是，豆包正通过插件化模式连接字节生态服务，其增长逻辑已从流量灌溉转向能力复用，这场入口争夺战正在重塑大厂竞争的基本面。

过去几个月，阿里携千问、阿福、灵光等产品，在AI to C战场上发起了一轮接一轮的猛攻，同时整合淘宝、支付宝、高德、飞猪等生态资源，构建起一个串联全消费链路的智能体。

相较之下，字节旗下的豆包，其声势却收敛了许多，没有像阿里那样大规模投流，也没有像腾讯元宝那样高调推出新功能，却架不住豆包自己频频“出圈”。

近段时间，豆包帮忙搭配衣服、豆包监督孩子写作业等话题轮番登上热搜，成为名副其实的流量密码。

更重要的是，这些并非官方投放，而是用户自发创作、主动传播的话题。

有时候，用户反应或许比财报更能说明市场变化。

在这场AI时代的超级入口争夺战中，大厂们各出奇招：阿里建生态，腾讯守入口，但正在悄悄赢得人心的豆包，更不容小觑。

01 遇事不决找AI

2025年12月，根据36氪报道，豆包的日均活跃用户（DAU）已经突破 1 亿大关。

字节内部人士透露，豆包的市场推广费用，是字节历史上所有破亿DAU产品中花费最低的。

豆包作为大厂AI原生应用的“老玩家”，其在2023年8月开始公测，并在2024年5月正式对外提供服务。

此后，豆包也曾通过烧钱换市场，月投放金额一度高达上亿元。

不过，在经历了一轮火箭式投流后，从2024年下半年开始，豆包的投放规模开始有所收敛。

其减少了单纯的买量投放，而是充分利用字节自身的流量生态，包括限制对手在字节体系内的投放，将广告资源集中在自家产品上。

截至2024年12月，豆包的月活规模已达7500万。

在这之后，Kimi、腾讯元宝、阿里千问轮番登顶“投放之王”。

根据DataEye研究院旗下ADX行业版数据，去年11月国内原生AI产品投放素材89.1万组，其中，腾讯元宝占46%、千问占34%、豆包仅11%，豆包的投入强度，大约只有元宝和千问的三分之一。

尽管豆包的投流不再“凶猛”，其用户规模仍在稳步增长。

2025年11月，豆包以2.72亿的月活规模登顶中国AI应用月活排名榜首；腾讯元宝以5305万位列第四；发力较晚的千问也来势汹汹，自去年11月上线以来，其在短短两个月内实现月活从***到亿级的增长。

但在更能体现用户粘性的日活表现上，豆包依然领先。

根据Quest Mobile数据，截至2025年12月，在仅App渠道的DAU规模上，豆包约为7000万，腾讯元宝在1000万以下，千问则尚未达到500万。

AI to C战场的竞争远未到最终章，但随着用户规模的持续增长，AI已在逐渐重塑国人的互联网使用习惯，最明显的表现是从过去“遇事不决找百度”变成“遇事不决找AI”。

根据中国互联网络信息中心（CNNIC）最新报告，已有超过40%的网民开始将“询问AI”作为获取信息的首选方式之一，这个比例在Z世代群体中更是超过60%。

传统的搜索行为正在悄然改变，大厂重兵投入，正是为了在这场入口迁移中抢占新的用户心智，但目前来看，豆包是最有路人缘的。

从技术能力来看，也许豆包的大模型技术不能跟阿里叫板；论用户规模，抖音的用户体量也不如微信，还有Deepseek、Kimi等专业选手，但豆包偏偏什么都能掺一脚。

豆包不刻意追求工具属性，而是通过降低使用门槛，把目标对准了广泛的普通用户。

简单来说，豆包不是让用户适应AI，而是让AI主动融入用户的生活。

正因如此，从学生到上班族，从宝妈到银发族，各个年龄层的用户都能快速拥抱AI，并自发开发出千奇百怪的使用场景：有人用它模拟班主任催作业，有人让它扮演前任道歉，有老年人将豆包当成赛博孩子……

网友戏称，人类对豆包的开发程度还不到1%。

02 “插件化”的豆包

在这场AI时代的入口争夺战中，豆包已经拿到了**张入场券。

甚至可以说，豆包已经成为了字节下一个十年的新流量入口。

尽管当下豆包的用户体量与字节旗下**大应用抖音仍有差距，但从绝对增速来看，豆包显然要更胜一筹。

况且，如今豆包的成长早已不单纯依赖于字节系的流量灌溉，其甚至能反向给字节其他业务导流。

细心的用户已经发现，豆包正变得“多才多艺”起来。

比如在豆包的聊天主界面中新增了汽水音乐、豆包爱学等功能。

以汽水音乐为例，用户只需要在豆包聊天界面中输入“播放音乐”等关键字，就能调用汽水音乐卡片。

更早之前，豆包开始尝试在豆包中接入了抖音商城，当用户询问“哪款补水面膜**用”，豆包便会推荐多款产品，用户点击蓝链即可跳转至商城购买。

大家有没有发现，这种将第三方服务“插件化”的模式，跟微信“小程序”多少有点相似。

回顾微信小程序的爆发历程，其最初的名字叫“应用号”，张小龙设计这一功能的初衷，是希望用户不要只停留在公众号或订阅号，而是能够在微信上调用更多新的能力。

但一开始大众对小程序的感知并不强，转折点则在于一个名叫“跳一跳”的小游戏，这个超级简单的游戏吸引了超过4亿用户参与，也培养了用户通过微信跳转至其他功能的习惯。

当下的豆包，也恰好处于类似的临界点，其正在培养用户“遇事不决问AI”的使用习惯。

当用户习惯了将豆包作为通往不同功能的入口后，豆包所能分配的流量甚至比抖音还丰富，不光是娱乐需求，还有学习、办公、购物、健康等方面的需求，流量转化效率更高。

可以说，“插件化”的豆包与“用完即走”的小程序，本质上都是希望进一步降低用户的调用成本，你不需要记住汽水音乐、豆包爱学这些独立应用，只需要记住“问豆包”这个行为习惯，未来用户甚至不用提出明确需求，AI也能通过上下文和用户习惯进行智能推荐。

在此之前，字节在争夺流量入口上也有过多次尝试，从早期以“APP工厂”模式密集推出各类垂直应用，到躬身入局打造智能硬件，再到推出“豆包手机”试图通过底层系统接管APP等。

尽管字节生态从来不缺流量，但却缺乏像支付、社交这样的完整生态闭环，始终难以在抖音以外再造一个流量中心，流量从抖音流出，却不回到抖音，难以形成正向循环。

然而，随着豆包的崛起，字节看到了另一种可能——以AI能力为核心，基于豆包围绕字节既有业务和潜在业务进行尝试，开发出更多新的AI模块，不断强化豆包的服务调度能力。

比如在抖音上，用户可以用豆包生成短视频内容；在番茄小说中，用户可以用豆包生成小说续写、人物设定；在飞书里，豆包能自动整理会议纪要、分配待办事项等。

字节不再执着于让每个产品独自“打爆款”，而是让豆包生长出更多新的“AI能力”，通过跨产品、跨场景的AI能力复用，驱动整体用户增长。

03 一场隐秘的交锋

外界总是习惯将字节和阿里视为AI时代的两大劲敌，实际上，豆包对微信的威胁也不容小觑。

当然，豆包想要动摇微信根基并非易事。

毕竟，腾讯生态之所以强大，不仅仅是因为用户规模，而是背后复杂的数字信用体系和社会关系网。

但种子已经埋下，字节和腾讯之间早已展开了连场交锋。

去年，豆包以更轻量化的工具形态，悄然对微信发起突袭，其推出“豆包输入法”，在微信聊天窗口中“截流”新用户；上线“豆包AI云盘”，精准击中微信文件传输有效期的痛点。

近日，在火山引擎宣布成为2026年春晚的**AI云合作伙伴后，腾讯元宝也开始反击，其开启了“元宝派”的社交玩法内测，并宣布将在春节期间派发10亿现金红包。

值得注意的是，不同于腾讯去年在微信中构建AI生态的打法，这一次腾讯显然更希望将元宝从微信体系内拎出来，变成用户愿意主动打开、高频使用的独立APP。

“元宝派”是元宝底部tab栏中的其中一个功能，用户点击进入“派”后，就能直接跟“派”对话，不久后还将灰度上线共享屏幕、一起看电影、一起听音乐等功能。

此外，“派”还打通了微信、QQ等社交软件，用户可以随时邀请他人加入，跟豆包、千问相比，“元宝派”融入了社交玩法，也有再造一个“AI微信”的野心。

可以看出，豆包正在通过更灵活的产品功能迭代，快速地测试用户需求和市场反应。

不同于阿里和腾讯更倾向在自身生态内找答案，豆包没有“历史包袱”，反而更能大胆尝试。

某种程度来说，庞大的生态体系固然是平台的“保护伞”，但也有可能成为创新的负担。

阿里率先意识到这一点，从去年下半年开始“化零为整”，进一步打通生态内不同产品的壁垒，形成一股新的强大合力；

腾讯想要凭借社交优势杀出重围，“元宝派”作为首个将AI 技术与多人社交深度融合的产品，其表现也值得期待。

新一年，AI大战也翻到了新一页：豆包发力生活化场景，阿里打消费生态的牌，腾讯则试图重塑社交……

目前来看，各大厂侧重的路线并不相同，但随着竞争发展到下半场，大家本质上还是奔向同一个目标，即如何让用户更丝滑地调用生态内不同场景的内容、服务和技术能力。

胜负未分，但格局已变。

只是，豆包能否继续保持领先优势，千问和腾讯能否沿着自身生态长出新的能力，这些接下来将要发生的故事，才更加让人期待。