韩国AI社交升温？3款产品月流水达百万美元

Core Insights - The recent exposure of the first AI service provider criminal case in China has cast a shadow over the domestic AI social market, while the South Korean market shows a contrasting trend with significant growth in AI chat applications [1] Group 1: Market Trends - The Korean game user population has dropped to its lowest recorded level, with users shifting towards streaming and short video content, as well as AI chat applications like "Zeta" and "Crack," which have millions of monthly active users [1] - "Zeta" and "Crack" have both achieved monthly revenues of over one million dollars, indicating a strong market presence for AI social products in South Korea [2] Group 2: Product Performance - "Zeta" has surpassed "ChatGPT" in user engagement, with 73.62 million hours of usage compared to "ChatGPT's" 48.28 million hours, despite having only about one-seventh of the monthly active users [4] - "Zeta" ranks as the second most popular AI chat application in South Korea, with over three million monthly active users, reflecting a significant penetration rate in a country with a population of 51 million [6] Group 3: User Experience and Engagement - "Zeta" offers a unique interactive experience that resembles co-creating an AI novel, utilizing its proprietary model Spotwrite-1 to enhance narrative quality and user engagement, with average weekly usage time increasing from 6 hours to over 13 hours [19] - "Crack," which emerged from the popular AI service platform "Wrtn," has also gained traction, generating 2 billion KRW (approximately 1.36 million USD) in revenue shortly after its launch [25][22] Group 4: Revenue and Monetization - "Zeta" achieved profitability in Q2 2025, with total revenue of 5.2 billion KRW (approximately 3.52 million USD) and an operating profit of 900 million KRW (approximately 610,000 USD), showcasing a successful monetization strategy through ads and subscription services [21] - "Crack" utilizes a gamified design and high-quality visuals to differentiate itself, while also integrating mainstream large language models for user interaction [31] Group 5: Cultural Context and Future Outlook - The success of "Zeta" and "Crack" can be attributed to the high penetration of webtoons and web literature in South Korea, with a user demographic that overlaps significantly with young audiences accustomed to consuming serialized stories on mobile devices [32] - The willingness to pay for content in South Korea is notably higher than in other regions, allowing these AI entertainment products to adopt a "free + subscription" business model effectively [32] - The AI social market in South Korea has transitioned from a concept validation phase to stable operations and scaling exploration, with future potential to replicate the success of webtoons [33]