AI consumer users won't leave but won't pay: why China's labs pivot to B2B
创业邦 · wechat · 2026-09-08
A deep analysis of why Chinese AI labs are abandoning consumer monetization: 710M+ combined MAU across Doubao, Qwen, DeepSeek and Yuanbao, but subscriptions convert below 6% (ChatGPT: 50M paying of 900M weekly), ads contribute just 2.5% of OpenAI's revenue, and AI hardware can't command premiums. Winners like Baidu Wenku (40M payers) and iFlytek's learning hub all monetize productivity, not chat. Expect labs to keep consumer apps on low-intensity maintenance while pushing API and office B2B.
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