According to the "2025 Second Quarter AI Application Value Ranking" released by QuestMobile, DeepSeek had an average monthly download volume of 81.113 million in the first quarter, but this number dropped sharply to 22.589 million in the second quarter, a decrease of 72.2%. This change marks the gradual fading of DeepSeek's shine, and its appeal in the market has significantly weakened.
At the same time, Doubao stood out in terms of download volume, becoming the new leader in downloads. The monthly active users of other AI smart assistant applications such as Kimi, Zhipu, Wenxiaoyan, and Tongyi also generally declined, with Lingyue's monthly active users dropping by more than 16%. In the AI application field, new competitors are emerging, especially in the "AI + Office" sector, where ima's monthly active users increased by 190.2% month-over-month, and 360 Wenshu's monthly active users grew by 134.5%. Additionally, in the "AI + Education" sector, Doubao Aixue under ByteDance had 7.562 million monthly active users, while Kuaidui AI under Zuoyebang had as many as 10.444 million monthly active users.
This ranking is based on two core indicators: average monthly downloads and monthly active users (MAU), showcasing the new changes in the AI application market. Regarding DeepSeek's sharp decline, relevant experts have proposed several reasons. First, DeepSeek was originally considered to have a "high cost-performance" advantage, but this label is being gradually removed by the market, leading to increased traffic loss. At the same time, big companies like Alibaba, ByteDance, and Baidu have launched similar APIs at even lower prices, further squeezing DeepSeek's market space.
Second, DeepSeek's users showed clear signs of diversion after being integrated into other applications, leading to a reduction in its user base. Third, as a general-purpose intelligent Q&A product, DeepSeek lacks deep user binding in specific scenarios such as office work, study, and entertainment, which has reduced its user appeal. Finally, the originally planned DeepSeek-R2 model was supposed to be released in early May, but it failed to launch on time and remained absent until mid-July, which raised doubts about DeepSeek's technical iteration capabilities.
DeepSeek's changing market performance once again reminds us that competition in the AI application field is intensifying, and developers need to continuously innovate and adapt to market demands to maintain users' ongoing attention and support.
Key Points:
📉 DeepSeek's average monthly downloads dropped sharply from 81.113 million to 22.589 million, a decrease of 72.2%.
🚀 Doubao became the new leader in downloads, while the monthly active users of other AI assistant applications generally declined.
🔍 Experts analyzed that DeepSeek's decline is due to intensified market competition and insufficient technological iteration.
