Alibaba’s Quark becomes top AI app in China

As of March 2025, Alibaba Group’s AI assistant app, Quark, has become the most popular AI app in China, surpassing ByteDance’s Doubao.

Quark now has nearly 150 million monthly active users (MAUs) globally, according to data from Aicpb.com. Doubao and DeepSeek follow with around 100 million and 77 million MAUs, respectively.

The rankings are based on app store data from Apple, Google, and Chinese Android platforms, excluding website visits.

Quark was initially a cloud storage and search service but has been rebranded into an AI assistant for mobile and desktop platforms.

Alibaba previously reported a total of 200 million users, though it did not provide a platform breakdown.

In a report from US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Quark ranked sixth globally among AI apps by MAUs in March, behind Baidu’s AI Search, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Microsoft’s AI-powered Edge browser.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ China’s massive AI investment strategy bears fruit years later

Quark’s rise to become China’s most popular AI app with 150 million monthly active users reflects a long-term national strategy coming to fruition.

In 2017, China launched an ambitious plan investing hundreds of billions of yuan into AI technology, explicitly setting 2025 as a target for major breakthroughs and 2030 for global leadership in the field.

The government’s comprehensive approach included leveraging China’s vast pools of engineers, scientists, and data resources, advantages identified in their strategic planning.

This long-term vision has materialized in the form of multiple Chinese AI applications with massive user bases competing at a global scale, with Quark now ranking as the sixth most popular AI app worldwide.

China’s deliberate AI ecosystem development has enabled domestic companies like Alibaba to rapidly scale AI products, demonstrating how strategic national investment in emerging technologies can translate to market success years later.

2️⃣ Transforming existing platforms accelerates AI adoption

Alibaba’s success with Quark demonstrates the powerful strategy of leveraging established platforms rather than building new AI applications from scratch.