The Evolution of China's Top 10 Internet Companies (2000-2025)

Internet giants have evolved from the "Portal Era" (2000, led by Sina, Sohu, NetEase) to the "BAT Triumvirate Era" (2010-2015, with Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent establishing dominance), and then to the "Mobile and Algorithm Era." After 2020, a new generation of giants represented by ByteDance, Meituan, Didi, and Pinduoduo rapidly rose through AI recommendation algorithms, local life services, and social e-commerce, breaking the ironclad hold of BAT.

By 2025, ByteDance is expected to top the list, marking short videos and content streams as the new kings of traffic.

Deep Evolution of Business Models:
Early competition mainly focused on information dissemination (portals, search), then shifted to connection and transactions (social, e-commerce, O2O). Baidu's decline in rankings reflects the marginalization of traditional search entry points; meanwhile, the continued presence of Meituan, JD.com, and Pinduoduo indicates that platforms deeply integrated into industry chains and solving specific life services and goods transactions have longer-lasting vitality.

Internet Evergreen:
Tencent and Alibaba demonstrate strong resilience across cycles, consistently remaining at the forefront for twenty years. The appearance of SHEIN at the end of the list signals that China's internet next growth point is shifting from domestic competition to global expansion.

If the past 20 years were about "Traffic is King" and "Mobile is King," the next 10 years will be about "Computing Power and Models are King." With AI development, the future ranking of Chinese internet companies may undergo the following changes:

1. Infrastructure Dividend of Alibaba and Tencent (Maintaining Top Positions):
AI requires massive computing power and cloud support. Alibaba (Alibaba Cloud) and Tencent (Tencent Cloud + social data) control the infrastructure. Their positions will remain very stable, consistently appearing in the Top 3.

2. Re-evolution of Traffic Giants: ByteDance's "Super Doubling"
ByteDance:
AI is essentially ByteDance's core DNA (recommendation algorithms). ByteDance ranks first in AI C-end users, is among the top three in e-commerce share, and shares the local life segment with Meituan. It is also China’s best-performing company in going global.

Its moat will be bottomless, likely maintaining the top spot for a long time.

3. Challenges for Operational Giants: Meituan, Pinduoduo, JD.com
These companies currently excel at "connecting the physical world" (delivery, logistics, supply chain). AI's impact on them mainly improves efficiency (e.g., unmanned delivery, intelligent customer service, supply chain forecasting).

AI development cannot solve the last mile in the physical world; they still have their own business moats. However, this is a tough and labor-intensive business with large scale but low gross margins.

4. Birth of "New Species": AI Native Companies Enter the Arena
Historically, before 2010, there were no Meituan, Didi, or ByteDance. Similarly, the AI era will inevitably give rise to entirely new AI-native giants.

Potential new entrants:
Embodied Intelligence (Robotics) companies: combining AI brains with hardware bodies (perhaps an evolved version of Xiaomi or entirely new startups).
Global AI Application Companies: like SHEIN, leveraging China's engineering talent dividend to develop global AI applications (such as video generation, AI social companions, gaming, local life services). Fields that have been extensively tested in China are still a blue ocean overseas.