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The mobile app forDeepSeek , a Chinese AI lab , skyrocketed to the No . 1 spot in app storage around the globe this weekend , topping the U.S.-based AI chatbot , ChatGPT . On iOS , DeepSeek is currently the No . 1 free app in the U.S. App Store and 51 other countries , according to mobile app analytics firmAppfigures .
The rapid salary increase of DeepSeek in the app stores ’ Top Charts follows its meteorologic rise in popularity this week leave from therelease of a serial of open AI models that are militant with lead offerings from OpenAI and Google . However , compared to other frontier AI model , DeepSeek claims its models were trained for just a fraction of the price with importantly worse AI chips . This present young efficiency gains for AI model training , which mail Nvidia ’s inventory damage tumbling down as much as 17 % on Monday and has put the rest of the technical school industry on high alert .
On Friday , DeepSeek ’s mobile app had just a million downloads across both the App Store and Google Play . That number has since doubled as of Monday morning , to 2.6 million downloads of DeepSeek ’s wandering app across both platforms .
The app currently sits in the Top 10 list for free apps in 111 res publica on the App Store and in 18 countries on Google Play , according to Appfigures .
In addition , more than 80 % of DeepSeek ’s entire mobile app downloads have come up in the retiring seven days , according to analytics firmSensor Tower . In that time frame , DeepSeek saw nigh 300 % more app downloads than Perplexity , another lead consumer AI app .
DeepSeek move into its No . 1 spot on the U.S. App Store on Sunday , January 26 , up from No . 31 just a couple day prior . Meanwhile , DeepSeek is the No . 14 Overall complimentary app on Google Play , quickly climbing up from No . 133 on January 24 .
As a upshot , daily active drug user jumped both globally and in the U.S. by over 110 % from January 24 to 25 compared with the same point last week .
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While China is the largest mobile app marketplace for DeepSeek today , it represents only 23 % of its total downloads , according to Sensor Tower . The app ’s 2nd and third largest markets are the United States , which make up 15 % of its entire downloads , and Egypt , which makes up 6 % of its entire downloads .
The popularity of DeepSeek ’s nomadic app raises question about the moat of popular consumer AI apps , such as ChatGPT , Gemini , and Perplexity . While hundred of million of people use ChatGPT and Gemini every month , DeepSeek leaven that the consumer AI space is still volatile , and new competitors should n’t be weigh out .
However , it ’s deserving noting that reach the No . 1 billet on the App Store is n’t just calculated by app downloads alone .
Apple ’s algorithm , though secretive , is a compounding of legion factors , including velocity of the installs and more . That allows apps that gain installs quickly to rocket to the top of the chart , overtake others that may have a larger total number of users or installs . It will be more revealing to see how long DeepSeek hold its top attitude over meter .
The tech industry is still coming to terms with the techniques DeepSeek used to train its AI models , and what it means for the unspecific AI distance . In luminance of DeepSeek ’s R1 example , head AI fashion model providers may be feeling pressure to release full models to prove their dominance , or rationalize the hefty price they ’re make up for compute . Meta has reportedly created several“war suite ” to analyze DeepSeek ’s grooming method .
DeepSeek ’s ascending in popularity waspotentially stifle by “ large - scale malicious ” attacks , the company reported on Monday , which force it to limit customer outside of China from registering for the app .
Additional coverage by Sarah Perez .
