WeChat responds to grayscale testing and accesses DeepSeek. On February 16, WeChat Souyisou, while using the Hunyuan large model to enrich AI search, recently officially connected DeepSeek in grayscale testing. Users who have been grayed out can search for the entrance at the top of the dialog box and see the words "AI Search". After clicking to enter, they can use the DeepSeek-R1 full-blood version model for free to obtain a more diversified search experience.
For some users who have qualified for testing, enter the search bar at the top of the chat interface, and the "AI Search" entrance will appear on the page. After clicking, an input box will appear, with two options: "Quick Question and Answer" and "In-depth Thinking".
Tencent said that multiple Tencent products are exploring access to DeepSeek, such as Tencent Cloud AI Code Assistant, Tencent Yuanbao, etc., to provide users with richer experiences and services.
Regarding WeChat’s access to DeepSeek, external evaluations are of great significance to the industry ecology, and its main vision lies in AI search. Through WeChat AI search, public account articles, video accounts, mini program services, friend circles, web pages and other content can be integrated. Previous public account historical articles, video account long and short videos and other content creations may be rediscovered due to AI recommendations. For Tencent, this will undoubtedly further improve the ecological efficiency within the platform. In addition, connecting DeepSeek to WeChat also means a larger traffic entrance.
"WeChat solves the current problem of insufficient computing power of DeepSeek and introduces more users to DeepSeek, which can bring about a major ecological expansion of DeepSeek." Pan Helin, a member of the Information and Communication Economics Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, believes that DeepSeek will achieve a wider range of applications in the future. In recent times, DeepSeek itself has often experienced server busy problems due to excessive visits. WeChat's move has given consumers an alternative, expanded DeepSeek's user contact area, and also reduced DeepSeek's computing power burden.
On November 13 last year, Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) released its third quarter report for 2024, which showed that the company achieved revenue of 167.193 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8%; net profit of 53.23 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47%; adjusted net profit of 59.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33%.
At that time, in a conference call, when talking about the commercial application of AI, Tencent executives revealed that in addition to Siri-like functions, WeChat also has multiple search entrances, and will further expand more entrances in the future. Tencent's AI product "Tencent Yuanbao" will not be embedded in commercial search results for the time being, and will focus on increasing the appeal of Yuanbao to users as much as possible, rather than rushing for commercial realization.
In addition, Tencent also gave more additional explanations on this AI search function:
1. Does the data source of AI search include public accounts?
DeepSeek, which is connected to WeChat AI search, supports online search (users do not need to manually select). Based on rich WeChat ecological content such as public accounts, as well as high-quality content across the entire network, it can provide users with more comprehensive and high-quality answers.
2. Has AI search been fully implemented?
This capability is currently still in grayscale testing and will continue to be optimized based on user experience and feedback.
3. Why does WeChat’s search scenario need to be connected to a large model?
Large models can improve the intelligence and accuracy of search, such as better understanding users' search intentions, analyzing and processing complex query content, etc. Based on user needs, we have integrated large models including Hunyuan and DeepSeek into the search scenario to further enrich the user's search experience.
4. Will AI search use personal information such as my Moments and chats in WeChat?
AI search only integrates public accounts and other public information on the Internet, and will not use users’ personal information and related private information.
On January 20, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek launched the large model DeepSeek-R1. As an open source model, R1's performance in tasks such as mathematics, coding, and natural language reasoning is comparable to the official version of the OpenAIo1 model. It adopts the MIT license agreement and supports free commercial use, arbitrary modification, and derivative development. After the Spring Festival holiday, many domestic industry leading companies announced their access to DeepSeek.
On February 8, QuestMobile data showed that DeepSeek’s daily active users surpassed Doubao for the first time on January 28, and then exceeded the 30 million mark on February 1, becoming the fastest application in history to reach this milestone.