DeepSeek surges to No. 1 downloaded app in Korea
Published: 03 Feb. 2025, 17:19
Updated: 03 Feb. 2025, 18:03
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- LEE JAE-LIM
- [email protected]
![This photograph shows the logo of the app of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, left, and U.S. AI powerhouse ChatGPT displayed on a mobile phone in Paris on Jan. 28. [AFP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/03/d7d17910-7ac4-4372-baee-15b522deb951.jpg)
This photograph shows the logo of the app of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, left, and U.S. AI powerhouse ChatGPT displayed on a mobile phone in Paris on Jan. 28. [AFP/YONHAP]
DeepSeek's AI chatbot has become all the rage in Korea, overtaking other AI-powered apps such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT to claim the top spot on the most popular app charts despite growing concerns about privacy and data breaches.
The app is No. 1 in both Google Play and Apple's App Store as of Monday on the chart of the country's most popular free apps provided by market tracker Mobile Index, overtaking ChatGPT or other popular apps such as Temu, TikTok and Netflix.
The number of daily active users spiked as much as 3,630.4 percent last week compared to Jan. 25, and 3,780.7 percent for the number of new downloads per the combined data of both iOS and Android users, according to Mobile Index.
The number daily active users peaked at 191,556 on Jan. 27 in the week following the release of the Chinese startup's chatbot, compared to 5,135 on Jan. 25, when Mobile Index began collecting such data. The most recent data on Friday came to 102,764.
The highest number of new downloads in a day was 171,257 on Jan. 28, up from 4,413 on Jan. 25. However, the figure dwindled to 40,312 on Friday.
DeepSeek put itself on the AI map on Jan. 20 with the debut of its so-called AI “reasoning” model R1 with an open source release.
The company gained significant attention for successfully developing an advanced AI model far more cheaply in the brief time span of two months using fewer low-performing processors than OpenAI.
With the rising popularity of the DeepSeek chatbot app, escalating worries regarding data protection are brewing globally, including in Korea. On Friday, the nation’s privacy watchdog announced that it would send an official request for information to DeepSeek “as soon as possible” regarding the company’s personal data-gathering and management methods.
DeepSeek’s privacy policy states that the chatbot users’ personal information ranging from names, dates of birth, email addresses and phone numbers are collected for the purpose of AI training and are stored on servers in China.
BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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