The Why: big tech's battle for keyboards

0:00Discussion keeps the world turning. This is Roundtable. You're tuned in to Roundtable. I'm Steve Hathorley today with Yushan and Yushan. Coming up, you tap out a text, fire off a search, ask an AI agent something, and every time the same invisible tool is right there beneath your fingertips, soaking it all in. In 2026, China's tech heavyweights are suddenly obsessed with owning that tiny piece of software, and they're not doing it for fun. Coming up on today's The Y, we crack open the race to reinvent your keyboard, and why the real AI war might be happening somewhere you'd never think to look. Our podcast listeners, that is you, can find us at Roundtable China on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget you can send us an email or a voice note if you want to get in touch with the show. Here's how you do that, Roundtable Podcasts at QQ.com. One more time, Roundtable Podcasts at QQ.com.

1:00We know the who, what, when, and where, but what about The Y? Why? Why? Why? Tell me why. Tell me why. Why? It is time for another edition of The Y. It is time for another edition of The Y. It's our segment where we take a trending story that everybody's talking about, and we ask the deeper questions, why? Behind it. Today's story, you should start with something so ordinary that most of us, including myself, never even think about it. Before that, let me ask you one thing. If I'll let you choose one thing that you cannot live without nowadays, what would it be? Some... You shot? You cannot think. Is it? It's a heavier question. You got it. My wife. Oh, wow. That's weird. But are we on the...

2:00Wait, is my wife the topic of Today's The Y? Yeah, anyway, you cannot pick one. I mean... I first thought about Self-Em, but are we talking about the air, water? You can't live without anything or just a piece of technology. All right. Yeah, all of them can do. But yes, people may say they're headphones or others like cellphones, and now maybe nowadays AI is being also part of our daily lives. But one thing that way we may ignore is the input method of the keyboard. Yes. So like you opened your social media, your WeChat, your send a message to a friend, you searched something, you wrote an email, you left a comment, and maybe you even asked A.H.H. Hatbot to answer questions. And one thing that is in out of the blue, in this kind of scenarios are just your input method. Oh, I never thought about that before. Right.

3:00But it's true. So, our constantly connected to a keyboard somehow, some way. Exactly. It's just naturally there. You expect it to just be there. It's the infrastructure of you and the digital world. Yeah, exactly. It allows you to communicate with whoever or whatever you're trying to communicate with. Yeah. So, in China, input methods are nothing new, globally is not nothing new. And the first major Chinese input method products appeared more than 20 years ago. Compini-lyce companies like SoGo, buy do, I fly tag, they have spent years making them extremely mature. You can use so many other features aside from just typing on these kind of apps. And they can predict words. They can recognize speech, learning of vocabulary, correct your mistakes, even draw some paintings through these input methods. I remember back in junior high school, our favorite thing to do is to switch the, we called it the skin of the input method of SoGo.

4:04That's back then that was what everybody was using for their little laptop or computer. It's like a desktop pat you can have on your computer. Just modify it to a pet version or to a flower version. It follows the similar structure for you to adjust which language you're using, but the design was so flourishing, there were so many variations. Yes. For most of people, the input method is simply just infrastructure and it works so we don't think even think about it. So sorry, can I stop and ask a stupid question? Every time you say input method, you're talking about a keyboard? Exactly. The digital keyboard that you need to type words and alphabets into your phone. So what is even surprising is not just that a few companies are experimenting with all of these input methods. Some of China's biggest technology companies are now building and also promoting their own

5:05AI powered input method. Some of the days you may know by dense, they have their own input method integrated with Doble, their AI agent. And then Tencent has their WeChat input method. Yeah, that one's super convenient to use. The association of word, according to my personal experience of using it, is so much better than the one that the phone comes with. It can just predict which you're typing next and always predict the right thing, the right phrase. Oh, wait, so what am I using? Am I using WeChat's input method or do I have to switch over to WeChat's input? You have to switch over. After installing it. I'm not going to separate app. I didn't know about that. So people will download the input method. I feel smarter now because I keep saying input method and I know what it means. People will download the input method for whatever app they are using. Right. Exactly. And they belong to different type companies.

6:07We mentioned by dense, Tencent, Alibaba, by Do I Fly Tag and also Tripway. A lot of them are like giant technology companies and also they own some of very advanced AI models. So China. So, the reason, am I weird because I didn't know about this? Does everybody know about this? You mean the AI or the input method, the popular? The popularity of the input method. I was just thinking about this question because in English typing, it feels so natural. But when it's a different language, I believe each language has its own kind of input method system. For us, there are several ways of typing out a Chinese character. I don't know how to explain the other way. It will be in English, but that one is according to strokes based on the characters. While the most common ones that young people use nowadays are based on the phonetic of words, yeah, pinion. So that's how we manage to put ABCDFG, type in these letters and type Chinese.

7:15So then let's get to, I guess, the why because that's the natural question. Why are these companies all in a race to develop their own when I guess it's important that people will switch over within within an app to use their own whatever their own input method. But that doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Even if you do switch over to their own designed input method, so what? What's the big deal? The big deal is that the kind of odd phenomenon that is happening in these industries, that is, okay, the company that didn't use to have these kind of application, now they're developing a separate app for it. And that is why we're having this kind of why question. Why are China's biggest technology companies suddenly making their own input methods when we already have perfectly good ones? And now I have three options for you guys.

8:16Oh, that was a quiz question. That's what the why do, right? Because AI has finally made voice input good enough to compete with typing. I know. B, because the keyboard could become a new gateway to AI. And C, because owning the keyboard gives companies more control over their digital ecosystem. Hey, still. I don't even think I understand the question. So I'm not sure how I'm going to answer. Why are they all in to this game? Why are they all in? Yeah, I guess the AI would, of course, AI would make voice input good enough to compete with typing. Yeah. But I'm not seeing the connection between the race for an input method and the, what's the line between that and AI? That is how interesting this topic can be. So all of these answers, well, there is no that specific direct or 100% right answer

9:24in this question. But mostly it's because the keyboard could become a new gateway to AI first of all. And then owning the keyboard gives company more control over their digital system. So anything but a because first of all, that's how it can be. Yeah, that's actually the opposite of what we said. So the input method or the keyboard that we're using daily for mostly all of the apps or everywhere, you're searching anything, leads to the issues that is you connecting with this digital world means that whenever you are typing, the information that you are typing can be grasped by these kind of companies. Then that's how connected with the ecosystem of all of these companies. I feel like the AI data collection is kind of the undertone behind this whole popularity of how all of these companies are trying to insert AI as part of the function when it

10:26comes to just these so common type in methods. Because earlier today, while we were chatting and preparing, doing homework for this topic, I actually downloaded back the WeChat input method that I used to have but forgot to use so it's gone now, but I downloaded it back. But at the agreement selection part, it kind of asks for permission in my phone, in my phone settings, on I want to collect your data and that may include personal information like your contacts, the phone number of your contacts, and your mailing addresses, your bank information. So I just naturally shut it down. But now that you're talking about it, that's kind of the whole point. Yeah, most of these apps, they will require a very, very high level permission to the data to the information in your phone so that they can run smoothly between different apps. If it didn't have the data, it wouldn't be able to do that. Yeah, there are like requirements that may ask you so that if you click no, then you may

11:32not even able to use these kind of input methods. And that is how they kind of get and also collect the data that it is not that intrusive that you are typing some sensitive information is just your daily words, your information that you are maybe talking with your friends or searching on different platforms. And another reason that all of these companies that are, you know, just suddenly getting into the world of keyboard or input method is that what we can know is that these companies, they are quite known for their AI agents as we mentioned. So it is some kind of a gateway that they can utilize the features and functions that they have spent a lot of effort on and actually utilize them into the app that they suddenly just created. So it's not that you can't use another keyboard to talk to BIDU's AI agent.

12:38You can use any keyboard you want. But the reason BIDU, for example, and also I fly tech in Sokola and others and bite to answer Nali Baba everybody, the reason they want you to use their own designed keyboard is because those keyboards are designed to better communicate with the AI agents that they have developed. Is that correct? That is correct. And another explanation is that it is just the easiest way for you to use their AI because the keyboard is everywhere. If you are using a separate app for their AI agents, you need to go back to your home screen and open another app, right? Even though that is the very familiar app that you use daily. But for these kind of AI models that they can insert in these kind of input methods, you just, you probably just slide your phone and then it's there. You can use their AI models. For instance, you're carefully typing a request.

13:39Could you let him know that we might have to move tomorrow afternoons meeting because something came up and asked if he's free this afternoon after that, the whole bunch of settings that you need to arrange for maybe sending a message to a client. And then these AI agents can suddenly just transfer them into, I may need to reschedule tomorrow's afternoon as me. So they are taking over and helping to make commands or decisions. I get it now. Yeah. So that's where the AI comes into play, especially with voice commands. Yeah. Voice command is also another feature that these companies, they've been developing and also supporting their AI agents because you have to talk to your AI agents, right? So these are the functions that they've developed for so long. That's another advantage that these companies can have. And then we go to another zone or another interesting question that I think we've been discussing

14:44for so many years, even, that a lot of these social media platforms can just so cleverly know that what you are thinking or what you were talking about with your friends, even though you didn't search anything on these platforms. So imagine that walking down the street, sending a message example is a good one because we often have to send a carefully crafted messages to our team group chat or coworker or client or what have you. And that's a pain kind of because you have to really be careful with your, you know, how you type in the words you choose and things like that. But if I can just walk down the street and just through a voice control, say like, yeah, so I'm not going to be able to make, gosh, what do I want to say here? I'm not going to make the round table meeting today because how should I put this?

15:46I have a pressing matter. Well, then the AI agent's going to take what I put in the input method, that voice control and it's going to craft the perfect message for me because that particular apps input method was designed to do exactly that. And that's why I would use that companies keyboard or input method as opposed to just my phone's original design one. And you haven't changed the way you communicate. You're still talking, but the software is doing more of the work for you. You just give them maybe a little bit of thought and then they can refine everything for you. But previously, I mentioned how I feel like some of these input methods are predicting so well with your words and phrase association after I just, for example, typed a few words of the beginning of the sentence. Just like how you say, like nowadays, it seems like social media knows what we're saying. And people who just assumed that our phone is what was listening to us talking to, but

16:51that's not the point. Here, I feel like the AI is doing more or less the same. It's collecting our typing or speaking habits and using it to function or better our speech or our texting, like the association afterwards. Is that where this is heading to? Yeah. You know, we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that your keyboard or the software they're using just secretly listening to everything you say or the social media companies are reading all of your private conversations. Different operating systems and apps and input methods have different permissions and have also privacy policies. I assume that now the internet administration and everything will of course limit the number of privacy that these companies can collect from you. That is one thing. But your question points to something generally interesting is that the input method sits very close to the moment when a thought becomes digital information.

17:53Before you are going to search something online, you will maybe first of all talk to your friends and then your friends may talk to another person and then your friends may search something like that. And all of these apps, they have very sophisticated ways of getting information. That's how we call big data. And they can even get information from the AI, from the IP that you're using from the IP that close to you. So these are all the ways that they can collect different types of data on what kind of information that you are searching or you are intending to search. And then they're just using these kind of, you know, a lot of system. They're just pushing these kind of information to you randomly. Maybe you are searching grape and your friends is searching kiwi and they will give you information about kiwi and then you may suddenly, oh, my friends just talked to me about kiwi. They're listening.

18:54It's a little bit creepy, but also kind of awesome at the same time. So what are some specific examples that we're running a little short on time? But what are the different companies doing to try to attract their own attention? So different apps, they will have different ways of, you know, attracting you. One thing, AI function that we mentioned, another thing, give you like different types of emojis. And you should just said that prediction is also one of the very important parts that these input methods are developing. And these kind of things are just how, and you can have a taste of how powerful their AI can be. And then maybe after that, they will lure you to another app of their own AI ecosystem. So do you both, this is all kind of new information to me. Do you use a separate input method for each separate app that you use? Not really. I use WeChat from Tencent on my phone, but the so go on my computers and laptops. So why, what's the difference there? It's just for typing, like on an actual keyboard for laptops and computers.

19:57I feel like that one is easier and better. But then when you're texting just on your phone via WeChat, of course, the natural WeChat input method goes along well with it. Because that's what everybody else uses. Yeah. They have long histories of building these and also domestic apps may be have a better function than the default keyboard. And a long history is a really good point there because once they have you hooked, it's very difficult to attract customers away from somewhere on NELS' user base. It's like getting people to switch phone brands. It's almost impossible to do. Really interesting. You shouldn't thanks for that one. And that'll do it for today's round table. Thank you so much for hanging out with us over the last hour or so for YouShine and YouShine. I'm Steve, have a good one and we'll see you next time.