Quick answer
Most mainstream AI assistants in China search the web when answering recommendation questions and attach reference sources. Each platform searches a different scope with different preferences, so for the same question Kimi, Qwen, Yuanbao and ERNIE Bot may name completely different brands. What brands need to do is the same on every platform: make sure the official site and third-party content carry clear, accurate, citable information. The difference is which sources each platform reads, and that can only be found by testing each platform with fixed questions and looking at the attached references.
Details
Three steps for every platform
- Fix the questions: use category questions real users would ask, without the brand name.
- Test by platform and entry point: ask each question several times on each platform, recording whether web search was on, the raw answer and the reference sources.
- Aggregate citations by platform: the websites cited repeatedly for the questions you care about are the channels to cover first on that platform.
What can be confirmed for each platform
| Platform | Web-search answers | Publicly confirmable information | How to see sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kimi | Supports web search | Moonshot AI publishes three crawler identities, KimiBot, Kimi-SearchBot and Kimi-User, with official IP lists | Reference links attached to answers; site logs can be checked against the official identities and IPs |
| Qwen | The app supports web search; developers calling through Alibaba Cloud Model Studio can enable web search | With web search enabled, the Model Studio API can return the list of retrieved sources | References in the app; save the returned sources when testing through the API |
| Tencent Yuanbao | Supports web search | As of publication, no public documentation of a dedicated crawler was found | Go by the references attached to answers, noting the share from Tencent-ecosystem content |
| ERNIE Bot / Baidu AI Search | Supports web search | Baidu's Baiduspider is a search engine crawler and cannot be mapped to a specific AI product | Go by the references attached to answers |
| Zhipu Qingyan | Supports web search | The developer API offers a web search tool that can return search results | References in the app; save search results when testing through the API |
| Metaso AI Search, Nano AI Search, Quark | Search-first products | Answers usually list sources directly | Record the source list in each answer |
The table lists only publicly verifiable information. When a platform has not published a dedicated crawler identity, do not guess from a name that "platform X visited my site".
Why the same brand performs very differently across platforms
- Each platform retrieves different pages and prefers different content types.
- Some platforms cite Q&A and reviews more; others cite news or content from their own ecosystem.
- Models differ in knowledge cutoff and version, so their closed-book knowledge also differs.
So the result on one platform does not represent a brand's performance "in AI".
When you need to monitor several platforms at once
Manual testing works for a start, but with many platforms and questions, repeated sampling and retests, manual records rarely stay consistent. When choosing a tool or service, confirm three things: which Chinese platforms and entry points it actually connects to; whether it keeps raw answers and citations; and whether web-search and closed-book answers are counted separately.
Common questions
Q: Which websites does Kimi cite?
A: Go by the reference links attached to its answers. Kimi publishes its official crawler identities and IP lists, so you can verify in your site logs whether it has visited.
Q: Where does Qwen get its information?
A: With web search, from retrieved web pages; references can be viewed in the app. When testing through the Model Studio API, you can request the retrieved sources and save them.
Q: Is there a tool that monitors DeepSeek, Doubao and Kimi together?
A: Yes. When choosing, first confirm which platforms and entry points are actually connected, whether raw answers and citations are kept, and whether web-search and closed-book results are counted separately.
Related facts
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