What Is DeepSeek (and the Other Chinese AI Assistants)?

DeepSeek is a Chinese AI company whose free chat assistant and open-source reasoning model, DeepSeek-R1, launched in January 2025 with performance the company put on par with OpenAI's o1. It is one of several Chinese AI assistants, alongside Qwen from Alibaba, Ernie from Baidu, Doubao from ByteDance, and Kimi from Moonshot AI. For most Malaysian businesses, these matter far less than ChatGPT and Gemini.

What is DeepSeek?

DeepSeek is an AI lab based in China that builds large language models and runs a public chat assistant. Its breakout release, DeepSeek-R1, arrived in January 2025 as a fully open-source reasoning model the company said matched "OpenAI-o1" on performance. You can use it through the chat app at chat.deepseek.com or through its API. Its current model line is DeepSeek-V4, first released as an open-source preview in April 2026.

What made DeepSeek notable was cost and openness, not a new consumer habit. The company reported that the base model behind R1 needed "only 2.788M H800 GPU hours for its full training" (DeepSeek-V3 technical report, December 2024). It also published the model openly, which let other developers build on it.

For a business owner, the practical point is simpler. It is another assistant people can ask questions, and a possible place your brand gets mentioned or missed as AI search grows.

The other major Chinese AI assistants

DeepSeek is the best known abroad, but China has several large assistants, each from a major technology company.

Assistant	Company	Notes
DeepSeek	DeepSeek	Open-source models; R1 launched Jan 2025, V4 in 2026
Qwen	Alibaba	Formerly branded Tongyi; app renamed Qwen
Ernie / Wenxiaoyan	Baidu	ERNIE model; consumer app renamed Wenxiaoyan
Doubao	ByteDance	Consumer chat assistant
Kimi	Moonshot AI	Known for long-document handling

Source: DeepSeek's release notes for its row (DeepSeek-V4 preview, April 2026); the other rows summarize company announcements and press coverage, 2024 to 2026.

These assistants are built mainly for a Chinese-language, mainland-China audience. Their names and branding shift often, so the labels above are current as of 2026, not permanent.

Do Chinese AI assistants matter for AI visibility in Malaysia?

For a Malaysian audience, Chinese AI assistants matter far less than ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. The assistants your local customers actually use are the Western ones, the same tools behind ChatGPT's answers, Google Gemini, and Perplexity.

There is no reliable Malaysia-specific usage data putting DeepSeek near those tools. In our experience, Malaysian owners asking about DeepSeek are usually curious about the headlines, not seeing customers arrive through it.

The exception is the same one that governs Baidu. If you sell into mainland China, Chinese assistants and Chinese-language visibility become part of that separate project, covered in will your website work in China.

Should you optimize for Chinese AI assistants?

Optimize for Chinese AI assistants only when Chinese-speaking or mainland-China customers are a real part of your market. For most Malaysian businesses, the higher-value work is being visible and accurate in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google, which is where local buyers research.

If Chinese speakers are core to your audience, the groundwork is the same as Chinese-language SEO. Publish clear, accurate, well-structured Chinese content that any engine, Western or Chinese, can read and cite. Keeping your business details consistent everywhere helps every assistant describe you correctly.

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek Chinese?

Yes. DeepSeek is an AI lab based in China, and its assistant and models are developed there. Its DeepSeek-R1 model, released in January 2025, is open-source under the MIT License and drew attention for performance the company put on par with OpenAI's o1. Its newer DeepSeek-V4 line followed in 2026. For a Malaysian business, it is one more AI assistant that people can query, not a search engine you must actively court.

Do Malaysians use DeepSeek or ChatGPT?

Mostly ChatGPT, along with Gemini. There is no reliable data showing DeepSeek near ChatGPT or Gemini for Malaysian users. DeepSeek is known here from the headlines, but it is not where your local customers are asking questions about businesses like yours.

What are the main Chinese AI assistants?

The best known are DeepSeek, Qwen from Alibaba, Ernie from Baidu, Doubao from ByteDance, and Kimi from Moonshot AI. Each comes from a major Chinese technology company and targets mainly a Chinese-language audience. Their product names change fairly often, so treat any list, including this one, as a current snapshot rather than a fixed lineup.

Should I optimize my website for DeepSeek?

Usually not, unless Chinese-speaking or mainland-China customers are a real part of your market. For most Malaysian businesses, effort is better spent being accurate and visible in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google Search. If Chinese speakers matter to you, invest in strong Chinese-language content, which helps every assistant, Chinese or Western, understand and mention you.

Does DeepSeek being open-source matter for my business?

Not directly. Open-source means other developers can run and build on DeepSeek's models, which is why it spread quickly, but it does not change how you would earn a mention. Whether an assistant is open or closed, the same thing helps: clear, accurate, well-structured content and consistent business details it can read and trust.

Court the assistants your customers actually use

The Chinese AI assistants are real and fast-moving, but for a Malaysian audience they are a sideshow next to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google. Aim your effort where your customers ask their questions.

Storming Solutions runs SEO/AEO/GEO for Malaysian businesses from Kuala Lumpur, so we make sure the assistants your buyers use can find, understand, and recommend you accurately. We will not sell you visibility on a platform your customers do not use.

Wondering which AI assistants your customers actually rely on? Ask us on WhatsApp and we will point your budget at the ones that matter.