For domestic AI startups in China, going global has almost become a mandatory question. In 2024, Chinese AI entrepreneurs have been rapidly advancing on the global stage, particularly in sectors such as education, entertainment, and productivity tools, where a number of outstanding overseas products have emerged, some with monthly active users exceeding ten million and strong revenue-generating capabilities.
Today, we will analyze the top 20 best-performing overseas products from two dimensions: traffic and commercialization. Besides traditional Chatbot and image editing products, there are also emerging applications such as AI chat assistants and AI education. Surprisingly, unlike internet companies that mainly choose Southeast Asia and the United States for overseas expansion, Japan has become the preferred destination for Chinese AI startups. For instance, Notta, a meeting transcription tool, has 75% of its C-end users from Japan and has achieved an annual recurring revenue of 12 million (revenue obtained by continuously providing products or services to customers). The Japanese adult learning platform UMU has also secured nearly 50 million USD in financing. Next, let’s take a look at these AI startups that have made a splash last year.01 / Top 10 AI Traffic Overseas – Creative Generation Remains the Mainstay In 2024, Chinese overseas AI applications began to stand out, such as Hailuo AI and Fotor, with five products entering the global AI product (website) traffic TOP50, and another five entering the 51-80th place. 1. Video generation tool Hailuo AI (30th place) In the second half of last year, Hailuo AI skyrocketed in popularity, becoming the first dark horse of ‘AI going global’.
Since the end of August 2024, when MiniMax released the video generation model abab-video-1, Hailuo AI has topped both the global and domestic growth charts for AI product lists (web) in September, and has maintained its position at the top of the domestic AI web list for overseas products to this day. In January, Hailuo AI added a ‘subject reference’ feature; you only need to upload the required character images, and it can automatically recognize the characters, making them listen to you and act in your plays. 2. AI character generation CrushOn (39th place) Founded by former ByteDance employees, CrushOn, like many AI companion products, uses virtual character IPs and borderline content to attract customers. Last March, the product’s visit volume exceeded 20 million and has been at the top of the domestic AI product monthly active user chart for four consecutive months. The average user visit duration of CrushOn is 16 minutes, ranking third globally, surpassing Character.The traffic is not only high, but the earnings are also substantial. According to the AI High-Income Ranking released by Toolify.AI, CrushOn ranks 23rd. Ahead of CrushOn is the AI voice startup ElevenLabs, which is valued at $1.1 billion. 3. Image Editing Tool Fotor (45th place) Fotor is a product that has shifted from a traditional image editing software to an AI software and has a certain user base. Fotor has accumulated 600 million overseas users in over 200 countries and regions, with monthly active users exceeding 15 million. According to Semrush data from last month, among the traffic of the Fotor website, Indian users account for 15.94% and US users account for 10.75%. According to Similarweb data, Fotor’s estimated annual revenue ranges from $15 million to $25 million. 4. Image Generation Tool SeaArt (48th place) SeaArt was incubated by a game company in Chengdu and grew in the field of AI painting. In terms of product design, SeaArt has gradually formed a community ecosystem from content production to content consumption by designing functions with different thresholds. On January 9, it was reported that the total number of users on the SeaArt platform exceeded 50 million, and the creation tool has been triggered more than 300 million times. The company behind it revealed that the company has achieved positive revenue since October 2023. 5. AI Education Tool Gauth (49th place) Gauth is a photo-based question-searching app launched by ByteDance, focusing on the overseas market and mainly applied to math problems. Besides math, it also covers STEM subjects such as statistics, physics, chemistry, biology, and writing. Affected by the “sell or ban” incident of TikTok, Gauth, also under ByteDance, sent a notice to US users to stop services and revealed that it has 300 million users globally. According to Data.ai data, the peak daily active users of Gauth in the global market reached 2.065 million in 2024, and the peak daily active users in the US market reached 1.39 million. 6. AI Image Enhancement Tool Cutout Pro (51st place) Cutout Pro integrates multiple functions such as picture copyright query, intelligent editing, and picture generation, aiming to help users quickly and efficiently produce professional and high-quality pictures in different usage scenarios. The monthly active users of Cutout.Pro have reached around 15 million, close to that of Midjourney and Gemma.
7. Video Generation – KlingAI (Rank 57) In 2024, the gap between Kling AI and Runway rapidly narrowed, and Kling AI joined the top – tier products. On overseas social media platforms such as X, many users praised the experience of using Kling AI. Technologically, it supports video lengths from 5 seconds to 3 minutes. Users can add extra frames to the video, turning a short video into a long one.
8. Browser Assistant – Monica (Rank 73) Monica is a browser extension based on the ChatGPT API. It can chat with users, generate copy, translate and interpret web page text. It also supports multiple languages and custom prompts, meeting the diverse needs of different users in terms of information acquisition, learning, entertainment, and work. In January 2024, its MRR reached $500,000. 9. Chatbot – Talkie (Rank 79) Public data shows that Talkie has reached 11 million monthly active users globally. More than 50% of its users are from the United States, and other markets include the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Compared with Character AI (with 14 million monthly active users), a leading product in AI social networking, the user scale of Talkie is not very different. However, the in – app purchase revenue of Talkie is not outstanding. According to Diandian data, Talkie’s in – app purchase revenue in 2024 was $1.21 million; the monthly in – app purchase revenue is approximately $200,000, and nearly 90% comes from overseas. According to media reports, MiniMax’s revenue in 2024 is expected to reach $70 million, and most of the revenue comes from Talkie’s advertisements. 10. Image Generation Tool – PixAI.Art (Rank 80) As an AI image product, this platform focuses on generating (two – dimensional) images. According to Tencent Cloud on October 8, 2024, PixAI.Art had 1.93 million independent visitors and 7.85 million page views in 2024. However, the product has compliance issues related to border – crossing content and risks associated with second – creation related to IP. / 02 / Monthly Revenue up to $10 Million, Japan Becomes a Favorite Going overseas not only allows access to the most advanced large – model technologies but also means mature user payment habits and a more open financing environment. Among this batch of AI products that have ‘gone global’, there are also some overseas AI products with revenues exceeding $10 million or receiving large – scale financing. 1. AI Video Editor – Opusclip, $20 Million AR Opusclip is a generative AI video tool. It can quickly edit a long video into 10 short videos suitable for viral dissemination, automatically crop the main character, generate titles, copy, and add subtitles and emoji expressions.There are estimates that Opusclip will reach an ARR of around $20 million in 2024, and its user base has exceeded 6 million.
2. AI Meeting Transcription – Notta, ARR of tens of millions of dollars Notta focuses on the Japanese market, with more than 75% of its C – end users in Japan. By August 2024, 4,000 enterprises had been using Notta, and the total number of users exceeded 5 million. Their globalization strategy has enabled them to expand from Japan to overseas markets. 25% of their revenue comes from Japan and 20% from the United States. The competition for AI products in the Japanese domestic market is relatively weak, but the demand exceeds supply. Notta has grown successfully through SEO strategies. According to public information, Notta’s ARR has reached nearly tens of millions of dollars. 3. AI Recording Card – Plaud.AI, MRR of $10 million Plaud.AI is in the form of a card, only 0.29 cm thick, and can be magnetically attached to the back of the mobile phone body for easy portability. According to Plaud.AI’s internal “Double Eleven” sales report, its revenue in November exceeded $10 million. 4. AI Video Editor – Higgsfield (Diffuse), $8 million in seed round Users can generate virtual characters and action videos through a selfie. As of the news in August 2024, Diffuse has accumulated 1 million users. In April 2024, the company received an $8 million seed round of financing. 5. Japanese Adult Learning Platform – UMU, total financing of nearly $50 million UMU is rooted in China and has risen in multiple markets such as China, the United States, and Japan. With the support of AI technology, it has launched services such as AI micro – courses, AI analysis of learning processes and results, and AI – customized personalized learning paths. By 2025, after nearly a decade of development, many well – known domestic and foreign enterprises such as Huawei, Porsche, and Panasonic Japan are using UMU for internal training. Currently, UMU has raised a total of $48.2 million from investors such as Tencent, Hillhouse, and 5Y Capital in seven rounds of financing. 6. Final Round Video Interview, MRR of $500,000 Remote interviews are common abroad, and remote interviews allow interviewees to refer to relevant materials. Final Round posted several videos on TikTok and achieved viral dissemination. The AI interview product Final Round launched an AI recruitment product after the outbreak of AI. Its MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) increased to $300,000 in two months, and its MRR had reached $500,000 in January.7. Answer AI Education, with an ARR exceeding 3 million USD, has become a leading product in North American AI education with a small team of single-digit members. Its founder, who is also the founder of, has experience in American youth social media and is adept at identifying pain points in the US K12 education sector. As of January, its user community has surpassed 6 million people. Reports from last May indicated that Answer AI’s monthly revenue is steadily at 250,000 USD, with an ARR of over 3 million USD. Currently, Answer AI has raised a total funding amount of 18 million USD.
8. Plant Identification – PictureThis (XingSe), with a monthly revenue of 80 million CNY, is an AI product that teaches foreigners to recognize various plants, boasting a monthly revenue of up to 80 million CNY. The product can identify over 400,000 types of plants with an accuracy rate exceeding 98%. Users can simply take a photo or upload an image to quickly obtain the plant’s name. It also provides plant disease diagnostics and personalized care plans. 9. Digital Human Video Generation – HeyGen, with an ARR of 35 million USD, is a tool for generating digital human videos. Users can quickly create AI digital humans, choosing from over 100 AI virtual digital humans or customizing their own character’s appearance and work attire. In October 2024, HeyGen’s founder, Xu Zhuo, stated that the company’s annual recurring revenue has grown from 1 million USD to over 35 million USD in the past year, with more than 40,000 paying customers. 10. Writing Assistant – Hix.ai, Focused on Academic Scenarios, is considered by many as a writing assistant without barriers. As one of the few writing assistants not covered by ChatGPT, Hix.ai’s uniqueness lies in its focus on learning and academic use cases, with extremely detailed functional divisions. It has over 400 sub-scenarios, such as tools for generating research papers and case study summaries in academic writing scenarios. Regarding payment, Hix.ai’s free users can generate 500 words per month with GPT-3.5, while the paid version is determined by the number of words generated per month with GPT-4. Summary: Chinese Engineers Expand to Larger Stages – Among these successful overseas products, most are ToC applications, with a relatively small proportion of ToB comprehensive applications. Industry predictions for multimodal tools, general efficiency tools, and AI hardware in 2023 have been reflected in this 2024 list of overseas AI implementations. Facing the larger international market, Chinese AI companies have clearly overcome geographical limitations.From the current perspective, there are two main advantages for Chinese AI to venture overseas: First, the accumulation of scenarios and consumer insights, which is the result of a decade of internet experience among Chinese professionals. Second, the global competition is witnessing the benefits of the engineer dividend. In the transformation driven by AI technology, engineers are the ones who best understand the boundaries and creative applications of technology, with Chinese engineers being particularly diligent in complex architecture and engineering research.
Finally, among the many factors to consider when venturing abroad, the importance of geopolitics has undoubtedly been brought to the forefront. For instance, Japan may be an underestimated market. The performance of some new products entering the Japanese market indicates that as long as localization is done well, the commercial potential of AI applications in Japan far exceeds expectations.
