Yilin Zhang, an AI product manager at the startup Kuse, shares insights on how Chinese AI products differ from those developed in the West, drawing from his experience at Meituan, one of China’s largest tech firms. A Tsinghua University graduate with a master’s in computer science, Zhang joined Meituan in 2021 and worked on two key AI projects: a consumer-facing AI assistant for tasks like food ordering, and a merchant-facing AI agent to help businesses manage orders, reservations, and daily operations. He highlights that the core difference lies in market dynamics. In China, intense domestic competition has forced tech companies to become highly efficient. This pressure has shaped a culture of rapid iteration, cost-conscious development, and relentless attention to user experience—even at the micro-level. Unlike in the West, where many AI products are built for high-value professional use cases, Chinese AI products are often designed for mass adoption with minimal friction. As a result, they tend to be free or low-cost, such as ByteDance’s Doubao, and centered around simple, chat-based interfaces that allow users to perform multiple tasks with a single prompt. In contrast, Western AI tools are frequently tailored for desktop use and complex work environments, emphasizing collaboration between humans and AI across professional workflows. The Chinese market, with its lower willingness to pay and a user base more accustomed to mobile-first, app-centric experiences, has pushed product teams to prioritize scalability and ease of access over advanced features. Zhang notes that Chinese companies have also been driven by external constraints, such as limited access to high-end GPUs due to international regulations. This has accelerated innovation in efficiency and open-source models. DeepSeek, for example, emerged as a leader by focusing on performance with fewer resources—a path born out of necessity. The AI startup ecosystem in China is now growing rapidly. After three to four years at Meituan, Zhang left to join Kuse, reflecting a broader trend: top talent is increasingly choosing startups over Big Tech. The pace of innovation in startups is faster, and the opportunity to build something new is more appealing. Once limited to careers in government or large corporations, young professionals now see AI startups as a viable and exciting alternative. By 2025, Zhang argues, not being involved in AI would feel like missing the shift from PC to mobile internet in 2010—too late to catch up. The landscape is changing, and China’s unique mix of competition, constraints, and user behavior continues to shape a distinct path in AI development.