Within the case of Manus, the competitors is shifting quick. Two of probably the most buzzy observe‑ups, Genspark and Flowith, for instance, are already boasting benchmark scores that match or edge previous Manus’s.
Genspark, led by former Baidu executives Eric Jing and Kay Zhu, hyperlinks many small “tremendous brokers” by what it calls multi‑part prompting. The agent can swap amongst a number of massive language fashions, accepts each photos and textual content, and carries out duties from making slide decks to inserting cellphone calls. Whereas Manus depends closely on Browser Use, a well-liked open-source product that lets brokers function an internet browser in a digital window like a human, Genspark straight integrates with a big selection of instruments and APIs. Launched in April, the corporate says that it already has over 5 million customers and over $36 million in yearly income.
Flowith, the work of a younger workforce that first grabbed public consideration in April 2025 at a developer occasion hosted by the favored social media app Xiaohongshu, takes a distinct tack. Marketed as an “infinite agent,” it opens on a clean canvas the place every query turns into a node on a branching map. Customers can backtrack, take new branches, and retailer leads to private or sharable “information gardens”—a design that feels extra like undertaking administration software program (assume Notion) than a typical chat interface. Each inquiry or job builds its personal mind-map-like graph, encouraging a extra nonlinear and inventive interplay with AI. Flowith’s core agent, NEO, runs within the cloud and might carry out scheduled duties like sending emails and compiling information. The founders need the app to be a “information marketbase”, and goals to faucet into the social side of AI with the aspiration of changing into “the OnlyFans of AI information creators”.
What in addition they share with Manus is the worldwide ambition. Each Genspark and Flowith have said that their main focus is the worldwide market.
A world handle
Startups like Manus, Genspark, and Flowith—although based by Chinese language entrepreneurs—might mix seamlessly into the worldwide tech scene and compete successfully overseas. Founders, traders, and analysts that MIT Know-how Evaluation has spoken to consider Chinese language firms are shifting quick, executing properly, and shortly arising with new merchandise.
Cash reinforces the pull to launch abroad. Clients there pay extra, and there are lots to go round. “You’ll be able to worth in USD, and with the trade fee that’s a sevenfold multiplier,” Manus cofounder Xiao Hong quipped on a podcast. “Even when we’re solely working at 10% energy due to cultural variations abroad, we’ll nonetheless make greater than in China.”
However creating the identical performance in China is a problem. Main US AI firms together with OpenAI and Anthropic have opted out of mainland China due to geopolitical dangers and challenges with regulatory compliance. Their absence initially created a black market as customers resorted to VPNs and third-party mirrors to entry instruments like ChatGPT and Claude. That vacuum has since been crammed by a brand new wave of Chinese language chatbots—DeepSeek, Doubao, Kimi—however the urge for food for overseas fashions hasn’t gone away.
Manus, for instance, makes use of Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet—extensively thought-about the highest mannequin for agentic duties. Manus cofounder Zhang Tao has repeatedly praised Claude’s skill to juggle instruments, keep in mind contexts, and maintain multi‑spherical conversations—all essential for turning chatty software program into an efficient government assistant.
