Baidu announced a global brand upgrade and plans to accelerate the international expansion of its AI productivity business during the Baidu AI Day event on September 21. The company rebranded its Oreate AI platform, launched last year, to Kooko. The updated service now features a general-purpose agent architecture, personalized memory, and improved integration between local and cloud-based environments.
The Kooko platform has reached over 10 million users outside of China. Baidu reports that the service currently has paying customers across 197 countries and regions, with the annual recurring revenue growing by 50% month over month. The company aims to focus on localization strategies rather than competing directly with existing AI products like ChatGPT.
Baidu is utilizing the international rollout of Kooko to analyze user behavior across different markets. In Latin America, the company is testing the platform with freelance and self-employed user groups. Meanwhile, in Europe, Baidu is observing usage patterns to inform the development of new features, plugins, and service packages.
The company is prioritizing local data, languages, and user workflows to build a market-specific context layer. By integrating with local and cloud-based work environments, Baidu intends to adapt its agent technology to international user habits. Adam Wen, head of overseas business at Baidu’s Personal Super Intelligence Group, noted that users prioritize context understanding and performance over brand identity.
