Live-streaming service YY Live, now owned by Chinese internet search giant Baidu, has launched a DeepSeek-powered chatbot it is calling YYDS, capitalising on the platform's use of artificial intelligence (AI) models with a meme-inspired name that means roughly "eternal god".

Baidu announced on Tuesday that it acquired YY Live from Singapore-based Joyy for US$2.1 billion, a 42 per cent discount from the US$3.6 billion it was ready to pay four years ago. Following the deal, Baidu said US$1.6 billion held in escrow accounts had been released, with plans to reinvest the funds into its cloud and AI infrastructure.

Like many companies looking to capitalise on the recent popularity of DeepSeek, YY Live recently announced that it had integrated the Chinese start-up's open-source models into its service to provide a chatbot named YYDS. In Chinese, the abbreviation is short for yongyuan de shen, an expression of extreme admiration.

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The move comes after many Chinese internet service providers rushed to adopt DeepSeek's models in recent weeks, including Baidu itself, which now uses the competing AI models in its search product. Other tech giants such as WeChat owner Tencent Holdings and e-commerce and cloud service provider Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post, have also been using DeepSeek's tech in various products.

Users can access YYDS on both mobile and desktop, and the platform supports both DeepSeek's V3 foundation model and the R1 reasoning model, according to the company.

Baidu is aiming to capture a share of China's booming short video and live-streaming market, which is currently dominated by ByteDance's Douyin - the Chinese counterpart of TikTok - and Kuaishou Technology. Alibaba also has a strong presence in live-streaming e-commerce, while WeChat is gaining traction with its in-app short video service, Channels.

Baidu launched its own short video app Haokan in 2017, a year after ByteDance launched Douyin, but the gap in market share remains large. In 2024, Douyin's and Kuaishou's average monthly active users reached 860 million and 574 million, respectively, while Haokan and YY Live had just 48 million and 15 million, according to market research firm Analysys Qianfan.

Baidu initially sought to acquire YY Live in November 2020 for US$3.6 billion, but the deal was terminated last year for failing to meet certain conditions, including getting the necessary regulatory approval.

Over the past couple of years, Baidu has been betting big on AI with its ChatGPT-like Ernie Bot and its autonomous driving unit Apollo. Industry competition has intensified as DeepSeek's advancements have reduced the cost of large language model applications, and the Chinese government has introduced supportive policies for self-driving technology. Baidu plans to make Ernie Bot free to use starting in April.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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