With the explosive innovation in generative AI technology, search engines are undergoing a revolution. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Scitech Institute released the "AI Search Industry Development Report" (hereinafter referred to as "the Report"), which proposes five major trends in the AI search industry. Among them, minimalist product design, one-stop services, and multi-terminal integration capabilities are experiencing a surge, with search scenarios becoming more vertical and specialized. PC-based products with system-level AI capabilities are expected to become gateway applications, and new forces like Quark are reshaping the search industry ecosystem.
The Report analyzes from perspectives such as core competitiveness, product form, search scenarios, core user groups, and industry ecological environment, indicating that the centralized outbreak of AI technology and applications has pressed the "acceleration button" for the AI search industry. Both domestic and international search giants and emerging manufacturers are continuously exploring new forms of AI search.
Taking Quark as an example, the Report points out that minimalist product design and one-stop services can effectively meet users' needs for faster, more accurate, and more user-friendly searches, becoming one of the important trends in AI search development. Minimalist design lowers the threshold for product use and significantly improves user search efficiency, thus more effectively attracting new users and retaining existing ones.
In July of this year, Quark upgraded its mobile "Super Search Box," followed by a comprehensive upgrade of AI search, AI writing, and AI document summarization functions on the PC side. The Report believes that Quark's one-stop service and seamless user experience allow users to complete personalized tasks in a state of immersion, greatly simplifying complex search processes and playing a significant role in improving search efficiency and user satisfaction.
The Report also suggests that new forces in AI search have shifted the focus of search technology from traditional keyword-based simple understanding to complex understanding of user intentions, performing excellently in vertical and niche scenarios. It is expected that they will gradually divert users from traditional search and incubate phenomenon-level products.
Currently, Quark has built unique content advantages based on long-term accumulation and development in vertical and niche scenarios such as education, office, health, and the college entrance examination. During the 2024 college entrance examination season, Quark AI search usage exceeded 100 million times, setting a new record for user scale.
It is worth noting that the general student population and the new generation of office workers have become the core user groups of AI search. For them, learning and office scenarios are the most common AI search scenarios, and PC-based products provide space for handling such complex tasks. Products represented by Quark, which offer comprehensive, system-level AI capabilities on the PC side, will become new gateway applications.
Regarding the development of the AI search industry ecosystem, the Report emphasizes that AI search is reshaping the search industry ecosystem. The rise of AI search is not just an optimization of search algorithms but a fundamental reshaping of user information retrieval methods. With new players entering the field, the "oligarchic effect" of the traditional search market is gradually being broken. It is expected that in the short term, AI search will divert some users from traditional search, and the gap in market share between the two will gradually narrow.
Data shows that Quark, a representative of new forces in AI search, has repeatedly topped the App Store download charts. During the school opening season, PC downloads increased by 173% month-on-month, achieving the highest number of new users in the industry during the summer. Among various AI capabilities, AI search, AI writing, and AI problem-solving are the three most frequently used functions by Quark users.
