(Yicai) Dec. 13 -- Paying customers lure Chinese generative artificial intelligence startups to explore foreign markets but developers need to pay more attention to local user requirements to succeed.

Going global has become essential for most Chinese AI model developers, transforming international market expansion into both a challenging and necessary endeavor, Xu Yangyang, partner at early-stage fund Chuxin Capital, said to Yicai.

More than half of the 23 Chinese AI applications with over two million monthly active users overseas are concentrated in video and image generation or editing sectors, according to the November ranking published by HRTechChina.Com. Hengtu Technology's photo-editing app Fotor ranks first and ByteDance’s study companion Gauth is No. 2.

The fastest-growing 20 apps show a high demand for specialized office and learning assistance apps, such as coding co-pilots, smart search tools, PowerPoint generators, and article summarizers, per the same source.

However, the trend is volatile. Fifty-seven out of 100 top apps saw declining visitor numbers last month, with Zuoyebang's Question AI—a camera tool for solving history, science, and math problems—suffering the most significant drop of 59 percent.

At this stage, profitability remains secondary. Pu Shilin, co-founder of productivity toolbox Pixel Bloom, emphasized that AI apps expanding globally are still in a money-burning phase. The global AI market is undergoing rapid application iterations, necessitating substantial research and development efforts, and investments.

Xu from Chuxin Capital noted that Chinese-developed apps have not yet established a clear competitive advantage in international markets and success hinges on developers' ability to anticipate future needs.

To create a successful product, Xu emphasized the critical importance of understanding users' actual needs and motivating them to pay voluntarily. He stressed that developing talent capable of identifying and managing localized market demand will be essential for Chinese companies' international success.

Chinese firms could collaborate with exceptional overseas development teams or acquire products with established user bases that already cater to local market demands. Following such initiatives, companies should focus on expanding and integrating product capabilities to create more comprehensive solutions.

Editor: Emmi Laine