YY Live, a Chinese live-streaming platform owned by Baidu, has launched an AI-powered chatbot called YYDS.

Built on DeepSeek’s V3 foundation and R1 reasoning models, YYDS is available on both mobile and desktop platforms.

Its name comes from a popular meme expressing admiration, reflecting the growing trend of AI integration in the industry.

The launch follows Baidu’s U$2.1 billion acquisition of YY Live from Singapore-based Joyy, a lower price than the original US$3.6 billion deal.

Baidu reported that US$1.6 billion from the transaction, previously held in escrow, has been released and will be invested in cloud and AI infrastructure.

This move signals Baidu’s push to strengthen its position in China’s live-streaming and short-video market, competing with ByteDance’s Douyin, Kuaishou, and Alibaba.

Recent Baidu developments