# Getting Started with China AI Visibility

Eastbound publishes a lot of material on Mainland Chinese AI visibility — five long-form research studies, a measurement methodology, eleven platform / engine / industry pages, and free tools. New visitors usually have one of five jobs in mind. This page routes you to the right place based on what you're trying to do, plus three caveats everyone should know before going deeper.

## 30-second orientation

Mainland Chinese consumers ask AI assistants — DeepSeek, Qwen (Alibaba's Tongyi) and Doubao (ByteDance) — for product recommendations, comparisons and how-to advice. The recommendations differ from Western engines. In our 540-call May 2026 panel, top-15 cited-source overlap (Jaccard) between any two Chinese engines was 0.20–0.30 — and overlap with Western engines was lower still. A brand strong on ChatGPT and Gemini can be effectively invisible on DeepSeek and Qwen.

## Are you here because…

### Path A — Brand marketer who hasn't thought about Chinese AI engines yet

1. [China AI visibility for global brands](https://www.eastbound.ai/china-ai-visibility/) — pillar reference
2. [DeepSeek vs Qwen vs Doubao: Why Brands Look Different](https://www.eastbound.ai/blog/three-chinese-ais.html) — 540-call source-mix study
3. [Luxury AI Visibility in China — The 5 Cited Sources](https://www.eastbound.ai/blog/luxury-ai-sources.html)
4. [Run the free audit](https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-visibility-audit/)

### Path B — SEO or GEO practitioner

1. [Generative engine optimization for China](https://www.eastbound.ai/generative-engine-optimization-china/)
2. [DeepSeek SEO](https://www.eastbound.ai/deepseek-seo/), [Qwen optimization](https://www.eastbound.ai/qwen-optimization/), [Doubao optimization](https://www.eastbound.ai/doubao-optimization/)
3. [Eastbound's measurement methodology](https://www.eastbound.ai/methodology/)
4. [AI crawler readiness](https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-crawler-readiness/) + [llms.txt vs robots.txt](https://www.eastbound.ai/llms-txt-vs-robots-txt/)
5. [Off-site substrate study](https://www.eastbound.ai/blog/off-site-substrate.html)

### Path C — Decision-maker evaluating ROI

1. [The business case for China AI visibility](https://www.eastbound.ai/business-case-china-ai-visibility/)
2. [China GEO agency services](https://www.eastbound.ai/china-geo-agency/)
3. [Methodology](https://www.eastbound.ai/methodology/)
4. [Book a 30-minute fit check](https://www.eastbound.ai/book-consultation/)

### Path D — Researcher or journalist

1. [Eastbound's measurement methodology](https://www.eastbound.ai/methodology/) — read first; flags measured / hypothesised / planned-test
2. The five published studies: [three Chinese AIs](https://www.eastbound.ai/blog/three-chinese-ais.html), [luxury AI sources](https://www.eastbound.ai/blog/luxury-ai-sources.html), [off-site substrate](https://www.eastbound.ai/blog/off-site-substrate.html), [risk-management un-pivotable brands](https://www.eastbound.ai/blog/risk-management-ai-pivot.html), [awareness-vs-decision intent shift](https://www.eastbound.ai/blog/awareness-vs-decision-brands.html)
3. Insights drilldowns: [Wikipedia at 21% on DeepSeek](https://www.eastbound.ai/insights/wikipedia-ai-visibility/), [YouTube at 20%](https://www.eastbound.ai/insights/youtube-ai-visibility/), [SMZDM tier collapse](https://www.eastbound.ai/insights/smzdm-ai-visibility/), [Zhihu](https://www.eastbound.ai/insights/zhihu-ai-visibility/), [Xiaohongshu](https://www.eastbound.ai/insights/xiaohongshu-ai-visibility/)
4. Data requests / quotes attributed to "Eastbound Research" — info@eastbound.ai

### Path E — Competitor or fellow agency benchmarking

1. [Competitor AI visibility audit guide](https://www.eastbound.ai/competitor-ai-visibility-audit/)
2. [AI visibility tools comparison](https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-visibility-tools/)
3. [Profound alternatives](https://www.eastbound.ai/profound-alternatives/)
4. [Run the free audit on your own domain](https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-visibility-audit/)

## Three caveats every reader should know

**1. China is a separate generative-search surface — not a translation of the Western one.** Source ecosystems differ by 70–80%. Don't expect Western GEO playbooks to port. See [AI search optimization for China](https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-search-optimization-china/).

**2. Selection ≠ absorption ≠ user-visible mention.** Per Aggarwal KDD 2024 + Yao Jingang 2026, a page can be selected (in the source pool) without being absorbed (shaping the answer) without being mentioned (brand name surfacing). Tw93's 2026 instrumentation showed ChatGPT retrieves ~100 pages per query but only ~15% surface. Three different metrics, different optimisation tactics for each.

**3. Off-site source-graph work is the slowest but most-compounding layer.** Aggarwal: brands cited by third parties referenced ~6.5× more than self-citation only. Technical = 1 hour. Content = weeks. Off-site source-graph (Wikipedia, Reddit, ArXiv / 百度百科, 知乎, 小红书, SMZDM) = quarters.

## Full site index

- **Pillars:** [China AI visibility](https://www.eastbound.ai/china-ai-visibility/), [What is GEO](https://www.eastbound.ai/what-is-generative-engine-optimization/)
- **Disambiguation:** [GEO vs AEO vs LLMO](https://www.eastbound.ai/geo-vs-aeo-vs-llmo/), [What is AEO](https://www.eastbound.ai/what-is-aeo/), [What is LLMO](https://www.eastbound.ai/what-is-llmo/), [AI visibility vs SEO](https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-visibility-vs-seo/)
- **Engines:** [DeepSeek SEO](https://www.eastbound.ai/deepseek-seo/), [Qwen optimization](https://www.eastbound.ai/qwen-optimization/), [Doubao optimization](https://www.eastbound.ai/doubao-optimization/)
- **How-to:** [How to improve brand visibility in AI search engines](https://www.eastbound.ai/how-to-improve-brand-visibility-in-ai-search-engines/), [How to get cited on Chinese AI](https://www.eastbound.ai/how-to-get-cited-on-chinese-ai/), [Why isn't my brand on DeepSeek](https://www.eastbound.ai/why-isnt-my-brand-on-deepseek/)
- **Tools comparison:** [AI visibility tools](https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-visibility-tools/), [Profound alternatives](https://www.eastbound.ai/profound-alternatives/)
- **Services:** [China GEO agency](https://www.eastbound.ai/china-geo-agency/), [AI SEO agency](https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-seo-agency/), [Free audit](https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-visibility-audit/), [DeepSeek rank tracker](https://www.eastbound.ai/deepseek-rank-tracker/), [Book consultation](https://www.eastbound.ai/book-consultation/)
- **Industries:** [Luxury](https://www.eastbound.ai/industries/luxury-ai-visibility-china/), [Travel](https://www.eastbound.ai/industries/travel-ai-visibility-china/), [B2B SaaS](https://www.eastbound.ai/industries/saas-ai-visibility-china/), [Consumer electronics](https://www.eastbound.ai/industries/consumer-electronics-ai-visibility-china/)
- **Research:** [Research index](https://www.eastbound.ai/blog/), [Methodology](https://www.eastbound.ai/methodology/)

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The fastest first step is the free audit at https://www.eastbound.ai/ai-visibility-audit/.