IDC: The overall market size of large model applications in China will reach RMB 4.79 billion in 2024

The Zhitong Finance App learned that preliminary statistics from IDC data show that in 2024, the overall market size of China's big model applications reached 4.79 billion yuan (not including the scale of computing power infrastructure), and cloud vendors, big model startups, operators, and traditional solution providers each have their own seats. Looking at the consumer market, IDC's global survey of 2504 consumers in December 2024 also found that 69% of people already use generative AI applications, and 22% use generative AI applications every day. Further innovations in edge and end-side AI are worth looking forward to, starting with the MWC's new release and large model applications that look forward to future hot topics.

Smart hardware worth watching at MWC

Traditional smart hardware products are upgraded to super intelligence driven by large models. Notable products include innovative generative AI applications in the fields of mobile phones, automobiles, sweepers, and floor scrubbers. Of these, the most noteworthy are the smart glasses that are expected to be launched quickly in the future.

In addition, some relatively novel hardware product forms have also appeared at MWC, such as smart rings, smart wristbands, and smart pendants. These products incorporate functions such as audio to text, image to text, and real-time translation enabled by large models to provide users with a real-time intelligent interactive experience, and also provide more room for imagination for the arrival of the “everything is smart” moment.

Overall, the innovative application directions of the current big model on the hardware side are: intelligent assistants for positioning questions and answers, AI search focusing on search scenarios, AI voice tools for audio generation or speech to text, and visual AI tools for image and video generation. Other vertical applications include environmental monitoring in smart homes, health testing in smart wearables, and smart driving and smart cabins in the automotive sector. As can be seen, innovation in generative AI applications is driving every hardware product to continuously “embody intelligence.”

End-side AI implementation opportunities

According to IDC data, in 2024, China's large-scale model application market will reach RMB 4.79 billion. Baidu, Alibaba Cloud, Shangtang, Inspur Cloud, Smart Spectrum, Innovation and Qizhi, Telecom AI companies, and Xiyu Technology occupy leading positions in the market. iFLYTEK and Baidu are far ahead in the central state-owned enterprise market, which is the main market for large model construction investments. However, more of the applications that have already been implemented are in the cloud. As big model technology continues to mature, it will bring more opportunities to the consumer market.

A new story of cloud side collaboration - end side big model launched. It is expected that the big model will continue to break through bottlenecks in computing power and communication in the fields of home appliances, tablets, mobile phones, headsets, glasses, and automobiles, continuously improve the collaborative reasoning capabilities of the end-side cloud, and even achieve “zero-power terminals” and launch more innovative applications.

The rise of software-side content creation platforms. The development of big models and agents will bring about a new ecosystem of creators. We see that the creator economy is growing. Hundreds of millions of content creators around the world who earn revenue by posting and sharing content represent a huge potential market for generative AI applications and creative tools infused with generative AI. More and more low-code zero-code intelligent development tools will also cultivate a new wave of entrepreneurship by lowering the threshold for application development.

Looking forward to the future, Lu Yanxia, IDC China research director, said that 2025 will be the year when the big model starts to restructure all applications, and the connection between ToB and ToC will become even closer. The market can look forward to truly efficient productivity-enhancing tools, super applications that create new experiences, smart hardware that goes even further, and an intelligent platform where everyone can become a developer and content producer. As we can imagine, the time for superintelligence, where everything is smart, is coming.