Doubao AI Phone Becomes Unexpected Hit in China

The "Doubao" phone, an AI-powered smartphone, has unexpectedly become a market sensation in China, demonstrating a strong consumer appetite for disruptive technology while simultaneously raising discussions around privacy and security.

The collaborative artificial intelligence (AI) phone, the Nubia M153 Technical Preview Engineering Model, developed by ByteDance's (TikTok's parent) Doubao and Nubia, a subsidiary of ZTE, recently debuted and immediately captured market attention. Phones available on official purchase channels quickly sold out, pushing all demand onto the second-hand market.

The surge in demand has caused prices for the device to continuously climb on secondary trading platforms like Xianyu. The phone, which had an official retail price of 3,499 yuan (US$492.8) , is now frequently listed between 4,000 and 4,999 yuan, with some extreme quotes having previously exceeded 36,000 yuan.

The demand has even spawned a short-term rental market, with the phone being offered for daily rentals at around 100 yuan.

Ni Fei, head of ZTE's mobile phone division, commented on the rapid market reception, stating that the mobile industry has long lacked "subversive innovation" for users.

"To open up the situation with an open posture, 1+1 > 2, just like iPhone + ChatGPT or Samsung + Gemini, the core goal is to bring a better product experience to users," said Ni.

Despite the consumer enthusiasm, the Doubao AI phone has faced immediate challenges, including restrictions by several mainstream apps, leading to a noticeable drop in its market premium.

The Doubao phone's core feature is its "system-level AI Agent" capability, which is designed to autonomously handle tasks related to social networking, e-commerce, and travel. However, this functionality has come into conflict with "super apps" like WeChat and Taobao. By potentially disrupting the traditional user-app interaction model, the AI Agent threatens the core interests of these tech-giant platforms in areas such as ad exposure and content distribution.

AI phones will face multiple short-term hurdles before they are adopted broadly, experts said. These include compliance with regulations on privacy and data protection and fitting with ecosystems covering major existing applications.