DeepSeek's growth in Southeast Asia has been stunted by a ban in South Korea, following fears that the Chinese chatbot breached the country's data protection regulations.
The AI was taken down from the App Store and Google Play, with South Korean authorities saying it would only return if it was made compliant with the law.
Newsweek has contacted DeepSeek for comment via email.
Why It Matters
DeepSeek has sent shock waves through the artificial intelligence industry, and poses a significant threat to U.S. control of this technology. DeepSeek overtook ChatGPT on January 27 to become the top-rated free app on Apple's App Store in the U.S., delivering a trillion-dollar blow to U.S. tech firms on the stock market.
What To Know
South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has blocked new downloads of the DeepSeek chatbot due to concerns over data privacy and national security.
The government agency said DeepSeek would remain unavailable to new South Korean users until its developers implement "improvements and remedies" that bring the chatbot into compliance with the country's personal data protection laws.
The announcement came after DeepSeek skyrocketed to the top of app store rankings in South Korea, amassing over a million weekly users following its surge in global popularity.
As of Saturday evening, DeepSeek disappeared from Apple's App Store and Google Play in South Korea, effectively preventing new users from accessing the chatbot through official mobile platforms.
However, existing users who had already downloaded the app can continue using it, and the AI remains accessible via its website.
DeepSeek is styled as a direct competitor to ChatGPT, describing itself as "rivaling OpenAI's Model o1" on its website.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump said in January: "I've been reading about China and some of the companies in China, one in particular coming up with a faster method of AI and much less expensive method, and that's good because you don't have to spend as much money. I view that as a positive, as an asset."
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described DeepSeek as "an impressive model, particularly around what they're able to deliver for the price.
"We will obviously deliver much better models and also it's legit invigorating to have a new competitor! We will pull up some releases. But mostly we are excited to continue to execute on our research road map and believe more compute is more important now than ever before to succeed at our mission."
What Happens Next
DeepSeek is continuing to grow in popularity worldwide, but it faces increasing attention and skepticism from governments across the world.
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About the writer
Theo Burman is a Newsweek Live News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is on U.S. politics and international ... Read more