Chinese artificial intelligence start-ups are trying to crack the US market to drive rapid revenue growth, in an effort to emulate TikTok’s success abroad amid a sluggish domestic industry.
MiniMax, ByteDance and 01.ai are among a group of Chinese AI companies that have launched AI products overseas, particularly targeting the US, which has a larger pool of high-spending users than in their home market.
Shanghai-based MiniMax, which is backed by HongShan, Alibaba and Tencent, has made inroads over the past year. The three-year-old unicorn has told investors it will net about $70mn in sales this year, a lofty projection by the standards of AI start-ups that have struggled to monetise their technology.