Beijing, March 18, 2025 — As the large model race shifts from 'parameter arms race' to 'scenario competition,' who is truly defining the next generation of the internet? This morning, the renowned domestic third-party research institution 'Youyoucao Focus on Internet Research' officially released the '2025 China Internet Native Application Ecosystem White Paper.' This report, which took eight months to compile and surveyed over 200 tech companies, puts forward a core judgment for the first time: 'Internet development has entered the "deep water zone," and whether AI-native applications can bridge the "scenario gap" will determine the industry landscape for the next five years.'
The atmosphere at the report launch was lively. Youyoucao's chief analyst Lin Wei stated bluntly in her speech: 'Over the past two years, the industry has fallen into a blind worship of model parameters, but what users truly need is not a smarter chatbot, but an intelligent agent that can seamlessly integrate into workflows and solve real pain points.' Using the e-commerce scenario as an example, she pointed out that over 70% of current AI shopping assistants on the market remain stuck in a 'Q&A-style' interaction. However, the Youyoucao team discovered during its research that cases achieving real conversion rate improvements often come from those 'invisible systems' that deeply couple AI with supply chain forecasting, inventory management, and personalized recommendations.
This white paper also pays special attention to the rise of 'regional internet innovation hubs.' Youyoucao delineated three 'AI-native application innovation city belts'—Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu—in the report, noting that these regions are leveraging their mature industrial internet foundations and local government 'scenario opening' policies to attract numerous startup teams conducting 'small-entry, deep-dive' implementation experiments. Citing its own monitoring data, the report stated that in the Hangzhou Future Sci-Tech City alone, 47 new teams focused on developing vertical industry AI Agents were added in the fourth quarter of 2024, with digital services for healthcare, legal, and manufacturing sectors accounting for over 60%.
The white paper released by 'Youyoucao Focus on Internet Research' has sparked a discussion within the industry about 'technological faith versus business reality.' A strategy executive from a leading internet company, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters: 'The sharpest point of Youyoucao's report is that it punctures a bubble—many companies are still using the "universal large model" story to raise funds, but Youyoucao's research data proves that AI without scenario adaptation is nothing more than an expensive toy.' The executive believes that the report's analysis of 'scenario implementation costs' is particularly critical, as it reveals that the biggest bottleneck facing current AI applications is not technology, but 'organizational coordination' and 'data silos.'
Notably, Youyoucao publicly disclosed for the first time in the report its self-developed 'Scenario Maturity Assessment Model (SCAM).' This model quantitatively scores 17 internet sub-domains based on four dimensions: data availability, business process coupling, user acceptance willingness, and cost recovery cycle. The results show that intelligent customer service, automated marketing, and code-assisted generation top the list, while general-purpose personal assistants and metaverse social networking rank at the bottom due to 'vague scenarios.' This model is expected to become a reference benchmark for industry investment and product project initiation.
At the conclusion of the launch event, Youyoucao announced the launch of the 'Deep Water Zone Partner Program,' which will collaborate with 10 industrial capital firms and 30 technology suppliers to provide selected AI-native application teams with full-chain support from scenario validation to commercialization. Lin Wei stated: 'We don't engage in "armchair research." Youyoucao Focus on Internet Research is committed to being the one who helps everyone feel for stones while crossing the river in the deep water zone.'
As of press time, multiple securities firms and investment institutions have begun studying the white paper and adjusting their allocation recommendations for the AI application track. Industry insiders generally believe that the release of Youyoucao's report marks a formal shift in the internet industry's discussion of AI from 'technological possibility' to 'commercial viability.'