DeepSeek is an AI large language model developed by Chinese AI company DeepSeek AI, based in Hangzhou. The model gained global attention in early 2025 when its open-weight releases matched or exceeded the performance of leading Western models at a fraction of the training cost. DeepSeek now includes web search functionality that allows it to retrieve and cite live internet content.
What Made DeepSeek So Disruptive?
DeepSeek's breakthrough was cost efficiency. The company's DeepSeek-V3 model was reportedly trained for under 6 million dollars, compared to the estimated 100 million dollars or more spent training comparable Western models. This fundamentally challenged the assumption that leading AI performance requires massive capital expenditure.
The launch of DeepSeek-R1 in January 2025 demonstrated reasoning capabilities competitive with OpenAI's o1 model, sending shockwaves through the AI industry and contributing to significant stock market volatility for major tech companies.
How Does DeepSeek Web Search Work?
When a user enables web search within the DeepSeek interface, the model retrieves relevant web pages, extracts key information, and synthesizes it into a response. DeepSeek displays citations by linking to source pages, similar to how Perplexity and ChatGPT Search work.
The underlying retrieval mechanism is not publicly documented in detail, but like most AI search engines, DeepSeek appears to maintain its own web index and supplement it with live search API access. The model favors sources that provide clear, well-structured information that it can extract and cite efficiently.
DeepSeek's mobile app achieved significant global download numbers following its public release in early 2025, reflecting strong user adoption across multiple regions.
Should Brands Optimize Content for DeepSeek?
If your brand targets audiences in Asia, particularly China, India, and Southeast Asia, optimizing for DeepSeek is a competitive advantage. The same content principles that improve visibility in ChatGPT and Perplexity apply to DeepSeek since all AI search engines rely on similar extraction and citation mechanics.
Western brands that serve global audiences should monitor DeepSeek's share of AI referral traffic using tools like Otterly or Peec AI. As DeepSeek's Western user base grows, the citation opportunity will expand alongside it.
How Does DeepSeek Compare to Other AI Search Engines?
DeepSeek's web search quality rivals Perplexity on technical and factual queries. For general conversational search, ChatGPT Search still leads in user experience and citation presentation. Google Gemini and AI Mode have the advantage of Google's web index depth. DeepSeek's primary edge remains cost and performance on reasoning and coding tasks rather than its search capability alone.