Buyer's Guide · Chinese GEO

How to Choose a Chinese GEO Agency

What generative engine optimization for Chinese AI assistants involves, the questions to ask, the red, yellow and green flags to watch for — and a neutral directory of providers.

Published: 2026-09-28
Updated: 2026-09-28

This guide is written for companies choosing a provider to improve how their brand appears in the answers of Chinese AI assistants such as Doubao, ERNIE (Wenxin), Qwen, DeepSeek, Yuanbao and Kimi. It applies to any provider, including those listed in the directory below. Disclosure: Jademond Digital publishes this guide and offers Chinese GEO services; it is listed in the directory alongside other providers.

The Short Answer

Measurement before promises: a good provider first shows how your brand currently appears in Chinese AI answers — with the prompts, assistants and dates disclosed.
Sources, not tricks: Chinese AI assistants cite what they find on the web. Lasting visibility comes from being present and accurate in the sources they rely on, not from gaming the system.
Native Chinese content: in many industries, non-Chinese sources are rarely cited by Chinese AI assistants.
No guarantees: no provider controls what an AI assistant says. Commitments should cover activities and measurement, not answers.
GEO and SEO together: search visibility, especially on Baidu, and AI visibility reinforce each other.

Why Chinese GEO Matters Now

Chinese users are moving part of their search behaviour to AI assistants. According to CNNIC, the number of generative AI users in China grew by more than 300 million within one year, from December 2024 to December 2025 — and answering questions is the most common reason people use them, named by more than 70% of AI users (QuestMobile). Over the same period, web search engines such as Baidu lost more than 90 million users, although more than 700 million people in China still use them.

For brands, this means two things. Web search remains a large channel and still drives website traffic. AI assistants, however, increasingly shape which brands buyers consider — often without sending a click. A Chinese GEO agency works on that second layer: making sure a brand is found, described correctly and recommended where relevant in Chinese AI answers.

Chinese AI Assistants by Monthly Active Users

Figures as reported by QuestMobile. Many users use more than one assistant, so the numbers cannot be added up. Western assistants such as ChatGPT or Gemini are not officially available in mainland China.

Doubao (ByteDance): About 382 million
Wenxin / ERNIE (Baidu): About 200 million
Qwen (Alibaba): About 167 million
DeepSeek: About 130 million
Yuanbao (Tencent): About 114 million
Kimi (Moonshot AI): About 9 million

How Chinese AI Assistants Choose Their Sources

Understanding what Chinese AI assistants cite helps you judge whether a provider's approach makes sense. The findings below come from Jademond Digital's cross-vertical citation analysis presented at the Shenzhen SEO Conference 2026 (more than 40,000 citations across six Chinese AI assistants and three industries). Results vary by industry and change over time; ask any provider which data their own approach is based on.

What the Research Shows

Grounding vs. model knowledge: Answers draw on two layers: what the model learned in training (slow to influence, weeks to years) and the web sources it retrieves when answering (grounding, which can change within days to weeks when the right content is in the right places). A sound GEO plan addresses both.
Editorial and vertical media lead: Media and vertical or editorial sources account for 37% to 70% of cited source types, depending on assistant and industry. Digital PR in relevant media is therefore a cornerstone of GEO in China.
Ecosystem bias is smaller than assumed: Assistants do favour their own ecosystems, but less than often claimed: across the industries studied, own-ecosystem sources averaged between 1% and 37% of citations. Alibaba's Qwen, for example, cited Alibaba domains in under 1% of cases.
Language filters: Chinese-language sources dominate in many industries — over 95% of cited sources in electric vehicles, about 62% in mobile phones — while industrial machinery was more mixed. Localized Chinese content is essential.
Authority helps, but is not everything: Domain authority correlated moderately with citations in consumer industries, and not significantly in industrial machinery, where foreign manufacturers' own sites were cited heavily.
Industry logic differs: Social media and user-generated content weigh more in consumer categories; specialist directories, reference sources and corporate websites matter more in B2B.

What a Good Chinese GEO Engagement Includes

Baseline measurement: A defined set of Chinese-language prompts that reflect real buyer questions, run in the assistants that matter for your audience, with results recorded by date
Source analysis: Which websites and platforms each assistant cites for your topic and competitors — the map of where visibility is won
Owned sources: An accurate, well-structured Chinese website and brand information that AI assistants can find, understand and quote
Digital PR and editorial presence: Earned coverage in relevant Chinese media and vertical publications
Platform presence: Genuine, useful presence on platforms your audience uses, such as Zhihu, Baijiahao or industry communities — without fake accounts or seeded answers
Reference sources: Correct entries in reference sources such as Baidu Baike, following each platform's editorial rules
Connection to SEO: Alignment with Baidu SEO, since web search results feed the grounding of several assistants
Ongoing tracking: Repeated measurement of visibility, accuracy and sentiment in Chinese AI answers, reported with the method disclosed

Types of Chinese GEO Providers — and When Each Fits

China-based agencies: Native Chinese teams with direct access to the assistants, platforms and media in mainland China. Check whether reporting and account management are available in your language.
Hong Kong-based agencies: Regional teams covering mainland China and wider Asia, often combining marketing services with technology.
Western agencies with a China practice: Headquartered in Europe, with China specialists in-house or on the ground. Familiar contracts and time zones; check who creates the Chinese content and where the testing happens.
In-house team: Your own Chinese-speaking marketing team, sometimes supported by a specialist for measurement, source analysis or strategy.

Questions to Ask Every Provider

Ask these in writing and compare the answers side by side.

Which assistants do you track, and why these? For a mainland China audience, expect Chinese assistants such as Doubao, ERNIE, Qwen, DeepSeek, Yuanbao and Kimi.
How exactly do you measure visibility? Ask for the prompt set, the language, how often prompts are repeated and how results are dated. AI answers vary between runs, so a single test proves little.
Where do you test from? Some assistants and their results differ depending on account and location.
Which sources do the assistants cite for our topic today? A provider should be able to show this before proposing tactics.
What will you actually do? Ask for concrete activities: content, digital PR, platform work, website changes — and who carries them out.
Who creates the Chinese content? Native speakers, and is every piece reviewed before publication?
How do you avoid spam? Ask directly whether they publish content under fake identities, seed answers on Q&A platforms or mass-produce AI articles.
How does this connect to our SEO? GEO and Baidu SEO should work together, not against each other.
What evidence can you show? Before-and-after measurements with dates, published research or conference talks on Chinese AI search.

Red, Yellow and Green Flags

Red flags point to methods that can damage your brand's reputation or be removed by the platforms. Yellow flags are not disqualifying on their own, but deserve a follow-up question. Green flags are signs of a provider that works transparently and knows the Chinese AI landscape.

Red Flags

Guaranteed answers: Promises such as "#1 recommendation in DeepSeek" or a guaranteed mention rate. No provider controls what an AI assistant says.
Content farms for AI: Mass-publishing AI-generated articles on self-media platforms such as Baijiahao, Toutiao or Sohu purely to seed AI answers. This is spam — platforms remove such content and it can harm the brand's credibility.
Seeded Q&A and fake identities: Organized answers on Zhihu, Baidu Zhidao or Tieba written by the agency but presented as independent users. Platforms treat this as manipulation.
"Review building" to influence AI: Orchestrated or incentivized reviews on Rednote, Dianping or e-commerce platforms. Reviews must be genuine; a campaign promising a number of reviews is not.
Undisclosed paid placements: Paid articles presented as independent editorial coverage without labelling. China's Advertising Law requires advertising to be identifiable as such.
Hidden instructions for AI: Text hidden from human readers but aimed at AI crawlers, or prompt-injection attempts. Such tactics can be detected and discounted.
Claimed special access: Claims of a partnership or back channel that lets the provider influence an assistant's answers directly.
Old link schemes renamed: Link packages or paid placements sold by a minimum metric and relabelled as "GEO". The red flags of the Baidu SEO buyer's guide apply here too.

Yellow Flags

Undisclosed measurement: Visibility scores or dashboards without the prompts, assistants, dates and number of runs behind them.
Western assistants only: Tracking ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity for an audience in mainland China, where Chinese assistants dominate.
One assistant only: Tracking a single assistant, although users spread across Doubao, ERNIE, Qwen, DeepSeek, Yuanbao and Kimi.
"Each AI only cites its own ecosystem": A strategy built only on one company's platforms, for example only Baidu properties for ERNIE. Research shows ecosystem bias is smaller than often assumed.
Owned channels only: A plan without editorial or vertical media, although these make up a large share of what Chinese assistants cite.
English-only content: Expecting English pages to be cited in Chinese answers; in many industries, non-Chinese sources are rarely cited.
Traffic promises: Promising website traffic from AI assistants. They send comparatively few clicks; measure visibility, accuracy and business outcomes instead.
Proprietary scores: "AI visibility scores" whose calculation cannot be explained.

Green Flags

Disclosed method: A repeatable Chinese-language prompt set, named assistants, repeated runs and dated results — shared with you.
Source analysis first: Tactics based on which sources the assistants actually cite for your topic and industry.
Short and long term: A plan that separates quick wins in grounding sources from the slower work of shaping model knowledge.
Earned presence: Digital PR, useful expert content and genuine platform activity instead of seeded or fake content.
Native Chinese content: Written or reviewed by native speakers, factual and verifiable.
Accurate brand facts: Consistent company information across your website, reference sources and platforms, so assistants describe you correctly.
Integrated with SEO: GEO planned together with Baidu SEO and your wider content strategy.
Honest about limits: Clear statements that AI answers vary and cannot be guaranteed — and that some assistants rarely send traffic.
Verifiable evidence: Before-and-after measurements with dates, published research or talks on Chinese AI search.
Stay honest, stay relevant, don't spam: A provider whose methods you would be comfortable seeing reported in the press.

Engagement and Pricing Models

Visibility audit: A one-off measurement of how your brand and competitors appear in Chinese AI answers, with a source analysis and priorities — a low-risk way to test a provider
Monthly programme: Ongoing content, digital PR, platform work and tracking; the most common model
Combined SEO and GEO retainer: Baidu SEO and GEO managed together, sharing research and content
Consulting and training: Advisory support and measurement for your own team
Pricing: Varies with the number of assistants, prompts, topics and content volume. Compare offers by activities and measurement method, not by promised results.

Provider Directory

The directory is an editorial selection of providers that state on their own website that they offer GEO or AI visibility services for Chinese AI assistants. It is not a complete list and not a ranking. Providers are listed alphabetically within categories based on the location of their headquarters. Each entry states only facts published on the provider's own website at the time of review. Use the questions and flags above to evaluate any provider, including those listed here.

Disclosure: Jademond Digital publishes this guide and is listed under "China-based agencies". No provider paid to appear. Providers can request additions or corrections at hello@jademond.com. Last reviewed: 28 September 2026.

China-Based Agencies

ChinaWebFoundry: Headquarters: Shanghai · Web agency with offices in mainland China · GEO for DeepSeek, Doubao, Kimi, Yuanbao and Baidu AI · chinawebfoundry.com
Jademond Digital: Headquarters: Guangzhou · Other office: Tianjin · Founded: 2012 · Chinese GEO combined with Baidu SEO, including visibility tracking across Chinese AI assistants as part of the service · jademond.com
Nanjing Marketing Group: Headquarters: Nanjing · GEO / AI marketing alongside Baidu, WeChat, Rednote and Bilibili marketing · Languages: Chinese, English · nanjingmarketinggroup.com
SEO Mandarin: Headquarters: Sanya, Hainan · Other office: Hong Kong · Founded: 2012 · GEO alongside Baidu SEO and PPC, web design and social media · Languages: English, Dutch, German, Portuguese · seomandarin.com

Hong Kong-Based Agencies

iClick Interactive: Company: iClick Interactive Asia Limited · Headquarters: Hong Kong · Marketing services and technology · GEO for DeepSeek, Doubao, ERNIE, Qwen and Kimi · i-click.com

Western Agencies with a China Practice

Nordic Business House (NBH): Offices: Stockholm, Shanghai · AI search visibility in China for B2B companies, including Baidu's AI search, Kimi and Doubao · nbhagency.com
SALT.agency: Company: Subpixel Ltd · Headquarters: London, UK · Other offices: Leeds, Boston · AI visibility on Chinese platforms (ERNIE, Qwen, Doubao) alongside Baidu SEO · salt.agency
Value China: Headquarters: Italy · GEO for DeepSeek, Doubao, Kimi and Baidu ERNIE · valuechina.net

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Chinese GEO?: Chinese GEO (generative engine optimization) is the work of improving how a brand is found, described and recommended in the answers of Chinese AI assistants such as Doubao, ERNIE, Qwen, DeepSeek, Yuanbao and Kimi. It focuses on the sources these assistants rely on, the accuracy of brand information and native Chinese content.
Why does GEO matter for brands in China?: Generative AI use in China grew by more than 300 million users between December 2024 and December 2025, and answering questions is the most common use. Over the same period, web search engines lost more than 90 million users, although more than 700 million people still use them. AI assistants increasingly influence which brands buyers consider.
Which Chinese AI assistants should a GEO provider track?: For an audience in mainland China, the main assistants are Doubao, ERNIE (Wenxin), Qwen, DeepSeek, Yuanbao and Kimi. Which ones matter most depends on the audience and industry; a provider should explain its choice.
What are the biggest red flags when hiring a Chinese GEO agency?: Guaranteed answers or mention rates, mass-produced AI content on self-media platforms, seeded answers under fake identities on Q&A platforms, orchestrated reviews, undisclosed paid placements, hidden instructions aimed at AI crawlers, and claims of special access to an assistant.
How long does Chinese GEO take to show results?: Changes to the sources assistants retrieve when answering can show effects within days to weeks. Influencing what a model has learned in training takes much longer — from weeks to years. A sound plan addresses both.
Do Chinese AI assistants only cite their own company's platforms?: No. Research presented at the Shenzhen SEO Conference 2026 found that own-ecosystem sources averaged between 1% and 37% of citations across the industries studied, and that editorial and vertical media made up a large share of cited sources.
Is GEO a replacement for Baidu SEO?: No. Web search still reaches more than 700 million users in China and drives website traffic, while AI assistants rarely send clicks. The two work best together, since search results also feed what several assistants cite.
Is the provider directory a ranking?: No. Providers are listed alphabetically within categories based on the location of their headquarters. The directory is an editorial selection, not a complete list, and each entry contains only facts from the provider's own website. Jademond Digital publishes the guide and is one of the listed providers.