ByteDance, Tencent, Alibaba race to build China's answer to Meta's Muse
Ant Group and Alibaba have begun small-scale testing of "Lingguang 2.0" and launched "Qwen Go!" respectively, ByteDance was reported to be testing a personal assistant called "Xiaodou" through its Doubao Phone Assistant team, Tencent is running a multi-track effort with LightVela, Yuanbao and a WeChat-native agent, and Manus — fresh off a 3.3 billion yuan funding round — launched its personal product Cue. The wave traces back to Meta's Muse, released Sept. 8: Sensor Tower figures cited in the report show 2.5 million downloads in 13 days and more than 5 million by day 22, though TickerTrends data cited shows daily net new users falling from a September peak of 198,000 to 74,000, with daily actives never topping 3 million in its first month. The report also says Amazon blocked Muse from placing orders on its platform, that 155 Chinese apps have refused such automation, and cites Morgan Stanley as judging that stable monetization for Muse is unlikely before late 2027–2028.
Personal agents are pitched as the next interface after chat AI, but trust, permissions, platform ecosystems and monetization remain unsolved, so the giants' collective bet is still unproven.