AI Search in China: How Can GCC Businesses Get Visibility

UAE businesses get named in Chinese AI search when Chinese-language sources talk about them, because assistants such as Doubao and DeepSeek trust what others say about a company far more than its own website. A procurement manager in Shenzhen asks DeepSeek for reliable medical equipment distributors in Dubai and gets four names back. Your English site, your Google rankings and whatever ChatGPT says about you played no part in choosing them.

The stakes are real. China is one of the UAE's biggest trading partners, with US$111.5 billion in trade outside oil in 2025, and more than 700 million people in China now use generative AI, 76% of them to look up answers. When a Chinese buyer's research starts with an assistant, the companies it names get the first call, much as AI Overviews now decide who gets noticed in Google.

Which AI chatbots do Chinese buyers use?

Four Chinese assistants lead the market: Doubao, Qwen, DeepSeek and Yuanbao. Doubao alone has more monthly users than the U.S. population, and the other three add about 350 million more. Each one reads different sources, so you need to show up on all four.

ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude aren't officially available in mainland China, and OpenAI blocks API access from there. So the AI visibility you track in Ahrefs or HubSpot is built for Western assistants like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews. It tells you nothing about how Chinese buyers, or the assistants they use, see your business.

These Chinese assistants draw much of their content from the Chinese marketing platforms UAE businesses already know: Doubao from Douyin and Xiaohongshu, Yuanbao from WeChat, Qwen from Alibaba’s marketplaces, and DeepSeek from Baidu Baike and Zhihu.

Why isn't my website enough for Chinese AI?

Chinese AI assistants cite third-party sources far more than brand websites. Across 160,860 citations from Doubao, DeepSeek, Yuanbao and Qwen, news media made up 28.8%, vertical industry portals 24.1%, social media and creators 16.4%, and brand websites only 12.9%. When an assistant is asked who your company is, your own website is the quietest voice in the room.

Breadth matters more than prestige. A brand cited by one source appeared in answers 2.1% of the time, and a brand cited by 11 or more sources appeared 59.9% of the time. One glowing feature in a national outlet will do less for you than steady mentions across a dozen trade portals, creators and Q&A threads.

AI search in English works the same way. The difference in China is that almost none of your existing coverage is in Chinese, so most UAE firms start from close to zero.

How long does a media mention keep working?

About two months. A mention loses half its influence in about 60 days, and in 39 days for time-sensitive topics such as prices, events and regulation.

An article about your business from two months ago now carries half the weight it did when it ran. Assistants favour recent sources, so newer articles, posts and reviews, including your competitors’, push older mentions out of their answers. A single campaign gets you named for a few months. Steady coverage through the year keeps you there.

The app and web versions of the same assistant also cite different sources, so a company can be named on one and missing on the other.

How does a business in the UAE and GCC get found on AI search in China?

Build a Chinese-language base, publish where each assistant reads, earn steady coverage across many independent sources, and check what the assistants say every month. In that order.

1. Build a Chinese-language base

Publish your key pages in Simplified Chinese. You don't need a Chinese company or a website hosted in China to do this. A Chinese-language section on a site hosted nearby, in Hong Kong or Singapore, loads well for mainland visitors. Keep your company name, services, locations and contact details identical everywhere, because assistants cross-check them.

2. Publish where each assistant reads

The table shows which platforms each assistant reads most, so you know where to publish first.

A Baidu Baike entry and a Zhihu presence are the cheapest wins on this list. Both feed DeepSeek and Ernie, and a well-answered Zhihu question keeps working long after a campaign ends. The Zhihu account we set up for our client DMCC in 2020 drew almost 40,000 reads in under eight months, against 61 on its old WeChat subscription account.

3. Earn coverage across many independent sources

Aim for steady mentions in news outlets, industry portals and creator content. Some vendors in China now sell guaranteed AI placements, and platforms are already filtering paid placements out. Anything you pay for can disappear with the next filter. Coverage from real outlets stays.

4. Write answers in Chinese

Put the direct answer first, then support it with clear headings, comparison tables and FAQs. Assistants lift well-structured answers more easily than brochure copy, in Chinese as much as in English.

5. Check what the assistants say every month

Ask the leading assistants about your company and category in Chinese, on both the app and the web. Record whether you appear, what they say and which sources they cite, then refresh coverage wherever it has faded.

"A monthly view of your visibility across the top seven Chinese AI platforms should be a high priority. Track the keywords you want to show up for, see whether you're rising or falling on each platform, and compare yourself with your competitors. Western tools like Ahrefs and HubSpot don't track Chinese models, so this needs its own process."

Laurent Ross, Managing Partner EMEA, Oxygen

Our China team can help you with this, including which assistants and keywords to watch and what to do about what you find. Talk to our China team about Chinese AI visibility.

Does Chinese AI search work differently by industry?

Yes. The sources that matter change with the buyer, so the playbook shifts by sector.

• Free zones: Chinese founders comparing setup options read Xiaohongshu notes from founders who have already moved, Zhihu threads and Chinese business media. The UAE has issued over 14,000 Chinese business licences, so Chinese founders are clearly looking, and they shortlist the free zones they read about in Chinese. Our Xiaohongshu campaign for DMCC's China roadshows shows how quickly that audience acts.
• Funds, family offices and M&A advisers: Chinese investors and acquirers lean on financial media, Baidu Baike entity pages and the regulators' public registers, DFSA in DIFC and FSRA in ADGM, which DeepSeek and Ernie weight heavily.
• Trade and suppliers: procurement teams ask Qwen, whose answers are shaped by Alibaba listings and sector trade portals.
• Tourism and hospitality: Xiaohongshu notes and Douyin video both feed Doubao, so travel brands need to be on both.

What does Chinese AI say about my company?

The quickest way to find out is to ask Doubao, in Chinese, who the leading firms in your category in Dubai are. If your name isn't in the answer, a competitor is starting the conversations you should be having.

Oxygen's China team runs that check properly: a first audit across the leading Chinese assistants, on app and web, showing where you appear, which sources your competitors rely on and which platforms to fix first. Book a first audit with our China team and build your Chinese AI visibility strategy.

FAQs on AI search in China