AI is sweeping the Agent market, Tencent is competing with ByteDance
The competition between technology giants Tencent and ByteDance in the field of AI is intensifying, and the DeepSeek R1 model upgrade has become a new focus.
Core content:
1. DeepSeek R1 model upgrade, Tencent and ByteDance quickly join
2. DeepSeek R1's improvement and optimization in deep thinking ability
3. Tencent and ByteDance's competitive situation in AI intelligent system development platform
The long-awaited DeepSeek R2 model has not yet arrived, but DeepSeek launched the upgraded version of R1 on May 29 .
Tencent quickly followed suit. In less than a day, Tencent Yuanbao, ima , Sogou input method, QQ browser and other products were the first to connect to the latest version of DeepSeek R1-0528 , claiming that multiple capabilities were comprehensively improved. This is an important upgrade of the DeepSeek R1 model after 5 months, which shows how much Tencent values DeepSeek .
One hour after Tencent’s official announcement, Bytedance’s Volcano Engine also officially announced its connection to DeepSeek R1-0528 , and at the same time launched a 50 % discount promotion for new customers.
The upgraded R1 model has enhanced its deep thinking ability. DeepSeek claims that it has achieved leading results among all current domestic models in multiple benchmarks such as mathematics, programming, and general logic, and its overall performance is close to other international top models such as GPT-o3 and Gemini-2.5-Pro . At the same time, it has been further optimized in terms of hallucination improvement, creative writing, and tool calling.
After DeepSeek became popular, access to it has become a standard feature of domestic Internet application products. Tencent, ByteDance and Alibaba have launched large models that are comparable to R1 , but this still cannot overshadow the brilliance of DeepSeek . In the comment section of DeepSeek's overseas social media, the most discussed topic among users is still looking forward to the next generation large model R2 , " We want R2 ".
Before DeepSeek's updated model came out, domestic cloud vendors were still competing with each other.
Especially Tencent and ByteDance. At the Tencent Cloud AI Industry Application Summit on May 21 , an important change for Tencent Cloud was to upgrade the large model knowledge base for enterprises to an agent development platform. This is consistent with the purpose of ByteDance's AI application development platform Coze , which is to help enterprises implement native AI agent systems.
On June 11 , the Volcano Engine 2025 Power Conference will also be held. The Doubao large model family will be fully upgraded, and AI intelligence in the fields of finance, automobiles, and medical health will be demonstrated. More importantly, the price war for large models was launched at the Volcano Engine Power Conference last May , and the price of large models was reduced to the "centimeter era", triggering a wave of price cuts among domestic large model cloud vendors. Will Volcano Engine throw out another "king bomb" this time?
Competition between the two parties in their respective cloud service markets has become increasingly apparent. Over the past month or so, major automotive industry customers that originally belonged to Tencent Cloud, such as Yuanrong Qixing, BMW, Dongfeng Motor, and FAW Bestune, have reached cooperation with ByteDance's Volcano Engine to promote cooperation in areas ranging from AI marketing to the implementation of Doubao large-scale models for human-vehicle interaction.
Will Tencent, which is strategically "accelerating AI iteration", follow ByteDance's lead?
Tencent targets Agent
After fully integrating into the Deepseek big model and reaping the benefits, what is Tencent AI 's next strategy?
"We propose four accelerations for the implementation of AI - accelerating the innovation of large models, accelerating the application of intelligent entities, accelerating the construction of knowledge bases, and accelerating infrastructure upgrades, to promote AI technology into thousands of industries and into everyone's life." said Tang Daosheng, CEO of Tencent Cloud and Smart Industries Group , at the Tencent Cloud AI Industry Application Summit.
In terms of intelligent agents, Tencent is about to launch an intelligent agent called AI College Entrance Examination Pass. Previously, QQ Browser launched an intelligent agent called Qbot driven by Tencent Hunyuan and DeepSeek dual models , which can help users perform tasks such as file format conversion, application updates and downloads.
For the B -side, Tencent's big model knowledge engine has also been upgraded to an "agent development platform" to help companies build intelligent systems. Users can let the intelligent agent autonomously break down tasks and plan paths, actively select and call tools, and autonomously develop intelligent agents that can complete different tasks. On the intelligent agent side, ByteDance launched the AI application development platform Coze (Chinese name: button) as early as last year to help B -side companies build their own AI applications.
In terms of knowledge base construction, Tencent already had an IMA for the C -end , and this time it released the "Tencent LeXiang Enterprise AI Knowledge Base" for the B -end , with the aim of enabling AI to better manage and apply corporate knowledge.
The knowledge base question-and-answer capability is one of the most effective ways that big models can bring to enterprises. The client case cited by Tang Daosheng is the robotics company Ecovacs, which used the LeXiang knowledge base to create an AI assistant, "boosting the labor efficiency of stores across the country, achieving double-digit improvements, and saving millions of yuan in annual operating costs."
Creating intelligent entities and building knowledge bases are the current commercialization directions of AI applications, and are also Tencent 's obvious move to catch up with ByteDance in AI applications.
On the same day as the Tencent Cloud AI Industry Application Summit, Bytedance’s Feishu also launched “Feishu Knowledge Q&A”, which is essentially an AI knowledge base tool that integrates the DeepSeek R1 full-blooded model. Users can access documents, messages, files and other information within their company through question-and-answer methods to generate more accurate and reliable answers in work scenarios.
Five days later , Enterprise WeChat upgraded its "intelligent robot", and its new capabilities matched the functions of "Feishu Knowledge Q&A".
Enterprise WeChat users can find answers to their corporate work through "intelligent robots". The principle is also based on internal information uploaded by the company, combined with deep thinking of large model capabilities such as DeepSeek and Hunyuan, and accurately respond to employees' various work-related questions. It is said to provide support for adding online documents, Weipan folders and other knowledge sets, and can also be connected with the business system through API interfaces.
From the perspective of product functions, the "intelligent robot" of WeChat for Enterprise and the "knowledge question and answer" of Feishu have the same purpose, because only by connecting the private data within the enterprise and realizing calls within a safe range can the capabilities of the intelligent body be truly improved.
The difference is that Enterprise WeChat adds to the original intelligent body functions, and does not demonstrate the integration with products such as Tencent Meeting; whereas Feishu has launched a new question-and-answer function on the product, which can be accessed with one click on the product side, and deeply integrates the knowledge base, messages, and notes.
Of course, Feishu’s “Knowledge Question and Answer” is still in the trial stage, and Enterprise WeChat’s “intelligent robot” is still far from being a true intelligent entity.
ByteDance seizes Tencent ’s Moments
Tencent’s biggest expectation for its intelligent entity is WeChat.
At the first quarter earnings conference this year, Tencent President Martin Lau mentioned that Tencent has the opportunity to create a unique intelligent entity for WeChat, which will be deeply connected with social relationships, communications, content ecology and mini-programs within the WeChat ecosystem. "Compared with other general intelligent entities, this will be extremely unique and our core differentiated product advantage."
The outside world has great expectations for this, because the general intelligent agents of Tencent Yuanbao, ima and other domestic manufacturers are essentially the same paths and capabilities, and it is difficult to widen the gap. As the tasks that AI can complete become more and more complex, only intelligent agents that combine Tencent's own advantages and capabilities can establish a leading position.
Therefore , Tencent has spared no effort in AI construction. Its capital expenditure in the first quarter of 2025 was 27.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year surge of 91% . It was mainly used for AI computing infrastructure (such as GPU procurement) and native AI product research and development.
On the other hand, ByteDance and Tencent have a consensus on the development path of intelligent entities, and are planning both general and vertical paths.
In April this year , Tan Dai, president of Volcano Engine, talked about ByteDance's judgment on the intelligent agent market and mentioned that if the development of AI is to bring real changes to all walks of life, Agent is the only way, otherwise AI will find it difficult to generate social and economic value.
At present, agents are divided into two types: vertical and general. Vertical agents , such as Volcano Engine's Data Agent , focus on data analysis and intelligent marketing; general agents make it easier for developers and enterprises to build their own agents . Volcano Engine has launched the OS Agent solution.
In Tan Dai's opinion, the definition of Agent will become clearer this year. Similar to the different levels of L1-L4 of autonomous driving capabilities , many Agents are currently only at the L1 level, and the actual implementation may need to reach L2++ or above.
Therefore, the outside world calls 2025 the first year of AI Agent , essentially hoping that Agent will bring real changes to the industry. When the novelty of the big model itself gradually fades, more practical Agent will bring more frequent usage demand. Only Agent with continuous use value can bring a commercialization path with stable traffic to cloud vendors.
Under the cloud service systems of Tencent and ByteDance, which industries have truly implemented Agent ?
It is not difficult to see from the public agendas of the Volcano Engine Power Conference and the Tencent Cloud AI Industry Application Summit that Tencent focuses on smart medical care, smart education, collaborative office, and energy manufacturing, while ByteDance's industry special sessions include finance, automobiles, collaborative office, and medical health. The industries that the two are competing for include medical care, manufacturing, and collaborative office.
Especially in the automotive industry, as the largest application scenario for AI , it is an AI battlefield that Tencent and ByteDance must win .
Both parties are striving to deploy large models to automobile manufacturers and continuously expand their circle of friends. Volcano Engine has established an automobile large model ecological alliance with 25 manufacturers including FAW Hongqi, BAIC, GAC, Geely, and Great Wall. Tencent's smart travel service layout was earlier and now has more than 100 customers , including BYD, Changan Automobile, Bosch China, Yuanrong Qixing, etc.
Changan Automobile Chairman once mentioned that Changan Automobile and Tencent started their cooperation in 2018 , jointly creating a digital cockpit including WeChat, and are now jointly creating an industry-leading AI intelligent body. Tencent Cloud Vice President Wu Yunsheng also mentioned that customers in the automotive industry will use intelligent bodies for after-sales knowledge support and fault self-diagnosis services.
But this did not prevent Changan Automobile, which had long joined hands with Tencent, from becoming a customer of Volcano Engine.
At the Shanghai Auto Show in April this year , Changan Mazda launched the strategic new energy vehicle model EZ-60 , which became the first Changan Mazda model equipped with the Doubao large model. It is said that with only voice commands, the Doubao AI assistant can call up more than 1,700 functions on the car at any time. More importantly, the two parties have reached in-depth cooperation and will continue to promote the application of Doubao large models in cars.
The smart cockpit + navigation + service system with smoother implementation is the biggest scenario for AI application in the automotive industry. When Yuanrong Qixing, BMW, Dongfeng Motor, FAW Bestune and more and more automotive customers join the cooperation camp of Volcano Engine, Tencent Cloud can only retain old friends in the circle of friends by providing more efficient and lower-cost computing power solutions in the future.
