Shanghai-based MiniMax’s Talkie app is making waves in the global AI landscape, boasting a rapid growth rate and significant international success. Competing with Character.ai, Talkie has seen its monthly growth rate soar over 150%, far outpacing Character.ai’s 21.6% growth. This surge brought Talkie’s traffic to 1.32 million views in May, as reported by AIcpb.com. Despite its impressive international performance, Talkie’s Chinese version, Xingye, garnered only 422,000 views in the same period, highlighting a stark contrast in domestic and international adoption rates.
MiniMax, backed by Alibaba Group Holding, exemplifies the trend of Chinese AI firms gaining traction overseas. In the U.S., Talkie has consistently ranked among the top six entertainment apps on Apple’s App Store since May 20, according to Data.ai. Conversely, Xingye’s ranking fluctuated between 29th and 8th place on the mainland’s App Store social networking category. MiniMax co-founder Yan Junjie attributes this disparity to the more competitive environment in foreign markets compared to the Chinese market, which is dominated by Big Tech firms.
This shift is noticeable across other Chinese tech giants as well. Tencent Music Entertainment recently announced the cessation of its Weiban AI chatbot operations on the mainland to focus on international markets, underscoring the growing emphasis on global expansion over domestic dominance.
