China’s Small Vendors Try to Strike It Rich on DeepSeek
DeepSeek may have roiled global stock markets and sent tech firms like Nvidia scrambling for answers, but for some Chinese social media users, the real test is whether it can power their side hustles.
Over the past two weeks, Chinese social media platforms like Weibo and RedNote, better known as Xiaohongshu domestically, have been inundated with articles like “How to Become a Millionaire with DeepSeek” and “DeepSeek Can Help You Earn While You Sleep.” From installation packages and content generation tutorials to stock market predictions and even fortune-telling apps, Chinese merchants are already finding ways to profit off the large language model’s popularity.
Many of these schemes rely on widespread curiosity about DeepSeek in China — where it’s viewed as a rare homegrown global success story — even among consumers not usually interested in tech.
“(It’s profiting from) information asymmetry,” a vendor on Chinese secondhand goods platform Xianyu told domestic media outlet The Paper. In a since-removed listing, the seller charged 39 yuan ($5.34) for a DeepSeek installation package that was freely available on the company’s website.
In addition to installation packages, dozens of Xianyu vendors offer DeepSeek “tutorial” packages, typically priced between 1 and 10 yuan per download. In one collection reviewed by Sixth Tone — which had been purchased over 900 times according to the platform — many of the files were generic AI tutorials rather than DeepSeek-specific guides; others were copies of articles that were freely accessible online.
Elsewhere on the Chinese internet, users have taken a more direct approach to DeepSeek monetization. On Douyin, the version of TikTok accessible on the Chinese mainland, The Paper identified livestreamers selling software that promised to leverage DeepSeek for stock tips. Listings for the software have since been removed from the platform.
Another influencer, identified only by her social media handle, Tatara, developed a DeepSeek-powered fortune-telling service and was selling AI-generated readings to her followers for between 888 and 2,888 yuan a session.
“I’ve already made 10,000 yuan,” Tatara claimed in a video posted in response to online criticisms of the service. “About 97.5% of users found it effective. It’s just a small AI-driven information gap business, but I’m having a great time.”
Under the terms of DeepSeek’s open-source license, the company’s models can be used for any legal purpose, including commercial applications, without prior approval or registration. Licensees must retain DeepSeek’s original copyright notice and disclose any modifications made to the model.
There are signs that DeepSeek has become worried about the potential reputational impact of some sales practices, however. On the evening of Feb. 6, the company issued an official statement identifying its official social media accounts and clarifying that it did not offer paid knowledge-sharing services.
“Apart from our official user exchange group on (messaging app) WeChat, DeepSeek has not established any other groups on domestic platforms,” the statement read. “Any paid groups claiming to be officially affiliated with DeepSeek are fraudulent.”
There are over 100 DeepSeek-related groups on Zhishi Xingqiu, one of China’s best-known paid knowledge-sharing platforms. One, the “Top Community for theDeepSeek Field,” charges a 62-yuan entry fee and as much as 12,000 yuan per hour for one-on-one sessions. It also offers a 68,000-yuan annual “private coaching ” package.
“It’s the same pattern as when OpenAI first went viral,” Zhang Xuguang, a researcher at Zhejiang University’s Research Center for AI in Education, told domestic media late last week. “(They’re) repackaging old tutorials under a new title and calling it the ‘DeepSeek Monetization Handbook.’”
DeepSeek’s rapid growth, which has overloaded servers and led to slow response times, has also opened a window for vendors to sell versions of the software that run locally.
These local installs run on users’ PCs and promise faster speeds, but are typically smaller, and therefore less effective, than the full model. Nevertheless, business outlet Yicai found vendors selling versions of DeepSeek that run locally for anywhere from a few yuan to a few dozen yuan. Some of the most popular options had been downloaded over 1,000 times as of Monday.
Small vendors aren’t the only ones hoping to cash in on the DeepSeek craze. Tech giants — including AI leaders Tencent and Baidu — have also rushed to integrate DeepSeek into their cloud platforms and AI services in recent weeks.
The arms race has helped slash prices for consumers. Baidu Cloud, a widely used cloud storage platform in China, cut prices by as much as 80% after adding DeepSeek to its services.
(Header image: VCG)
