How hot is DeepSeek?? During this year's Spring Festival, Black Myth: Goku producer Feng Ji praised theDeepSeekFor the national transportation level of scientific and technological achievements, so that DeepSeek breaks the circle of dissemination, up to the time of publication, no less than 30 hot search topics.

Not only that, DeepSeek has set many records. According to QuestMobile data, DeepSeek surpassed Doubao for the first time in the number of daily active users on January 28, and then wildly gained 100 million users in 7 days, surpassing ChatGPT's user growth rate and becoming the fastest-growing Internet product in the history of the number of users.

The myth of overnight riches is also taking its turn in the DeepSeek era!

On the one hand, real money into the pockets of businesses: self media bloggers selling classes 3 hours into the 50,000, run a knowledge community registration fees 7 days 470,000 to hand, keyboard, mouse computer peripherals sales rose a hundred times a day, the businessman 1 day to earn 1 million ......

On the other side is the splash of traffic on social platforms: videos related to DeepSeek that have broken a million views abound on B ......

▲DeepSeek related videos on B site

In the e-commerce, social platforms to search for "DeepSeek" related entries found that the momentum to earn money in the following five categories:Sell local deployment and account registration services(math.) genusMouse Keyboard Glasses Live Streaming Plus DeepSeek Keyword Leads(math.) genusA training class that teaches you how to make money fast(math.) genusTorrent domains, apps lure downloads to trick you into charging members(math.) genusPackaging free resource packs for saleThe price of these goods and training courses is the lowest.One cent.supremethousands of dollars, some of which have sold in the thousands.

Open source free fire model DeepSeek has not yet earned money, selling courses, services, "middlemen" have made a lot of money.

Shakeology blogger's course "One Man Company Methodology + deepseek", priced at $1999, sold more than $100,000 in a 3-hour live broadcast on February 5th.50,000 yuan. Little Red Book sells 2,000+ copies of its $98 AI office apps training course for a wild profit210,000 dollars.The "Make Small Money Efficiently" course on Planet Knowledge, a paid knowledge community, was used by 7,700 people in 7 days for $62, and supported about480,000 dollars.; Mimic Technology sold more than 230,000 DeepSeek-equipped mice and keyboards, with sales soaring on Feb. 6 to750,000 dollars.untilOne million dollars.......

But in this wave of boom, the phenomenon of cutting leeks by the "information gap" is not uncommon, through the "hanging sheep's head selling dog meat" behavior to fool consumers.

Some merchants in the Apple App Store to buy promotions, play the "word game" to mislead consumers to download the cottage App recharge members, silky smooth into the account!More than $10,000; many of the previousBusinesses selling necklaces and cell phone casesDeepSeek is now in the DeepSeek business, helping users to pay for local deployment, and even adding the word "DeepSeek" to the name of the product.The details are unrelated.The "sheep's head selling dog meat" behavior;Not a single item except DeepSeek.The store ......

February 6DeepSeek Speaks Out Urgently Against Phony Accounts and Misinformation: posted a reminder to users that all information is subject to official account releases, andDownload the official App through regular channelsPlease note that the official DeepSeek web site and the official app are available on the website.No advertisements or paid programs are included.

Although DeepSeek tries to show users the right way to get information and software to avoid users from being misled and losing money, the "leek-cutting" mess it triggered is still festering.

I. 6 types of "middlemen" that are more profitable than DeepSeek

Now in the social platforms, e-commerce platforms, search "DeepSeek", articles, product names are not less than "lying money", "get rich", "Make millions" are the words that catch people's attention. Open-source, free DeepSeek has not yet made a profit, there are already6 types of "middlemen"Earn money under the guise of teaching you to get rich with DeepSeek.

1, sell local deployment, account registration services, the content of the document is more or less the same

local deploymentIt refers to helping users download DeepSeek models to their computers and reasoning with their computer graphics cards. Related products can be found on Taobao, Xiaohongshu, Idle Fish and other platforms, and the merchants will provide installation packages, installation tutorials, instructions for use and other services or documents, with prices ranging from$0.01until (a time)1599 dollars.No wait.

The content of most of the products for sale is pretty much the same, and the selling price varies perhaps depending on whether the business is one-on-one and hands-on. The highest selling price of 1599 yuan, which is oriented towards enterprise knowledge base development private deployment, to help enterprises build knowledge base-based Q&A system, 0.01 yuan details page mentioned that it will be updated with DeepSeek local deployment of the relevant documents.

▲Idle fish (left), Taobao (right) page search DeepSeek appeared products

As you can see in the buyer's comments at the bottom of the page, the products it sells include Mac and Windows versions of Chatbox and ollama installation files, video tutorials, as well as user guides, and text tutorials for installing and running Ollama. Among them are Chatbox, an AI application and intelligent assistant that supports the use of models and APIs, with an AI chat interface for all platforms, and Ollama, an open-source framework designed for easy deployment and running of large-scale language models on local machines.

Account RegistrationThe corresponding products are priced under $10 for both shared and solo accounts, with shared accounts priced at $2.99 and solo at $9.99. Customer service says that shared accounts are used by more than one person. The product has sold more than 100 units.

2, hardware integration DeepSeek, mouse and keyboard sales crazy!

The third category isTying your own hardware to DeepSeek, the types of products that can currently be retrieved include children's toys, smart glasses, mice, keyboards, and large model all-in-ones.

There is no hotter AI hardware on the Jitterbug platform than Mimic Technology's keypad products, whose live stream is titled "AI keypads plugged into DeepSeek have sold 230,000 units".

Mice technology home page of the mouse and keyboard labeled "DeepSeek", the top three products have sold more than ten thousand. The highest selling product is the 399 RMB M4 AI mouse which has sold 130,000 units, and the second is the MK17 AI keyboard which is priced at 399 RMB and has sold 28,000 units. These products are equipped with 6 general models and 3 specialized models containing DeepSeek, which support AI Q&A, AI writing, making PPTs, picture generation, audio writing, and so on.

marketplaceServers, workstationsof merchants also labeled their product titles with the words DeepSeek.

A search of DeepSeek on the Shakeology platform also found it priced at $699Li Wei Ke Smart AI GlassesBut its details page does not appear DeepSeek-related functions, only the anchor in the explanation of the smart glasses mentioned access to the DeepSeek large model.

There's also the Astronaut DODO smart kids toy that accesses DeepSeek, whose main function is to communicate with the user based on different models, which is priced at $188 and has total sales of over 300 units. Screenshots from buyers in the comments section show that DeepSeek is already included in the models available on the DODO feature page.

3, sell training courses: teach you to do self media starting number of cash, efficiently earn a small amount of money

This wave of DeepSeek selling lessons to make money is more prevalent on self-publishing platforms and at higher prices compared to other commodity types.

There are a lot of commodity page title with teach you to make money with DeepSeek, including how to do self media, how to quickly start the number of cash, how to generate explosive copywriting, etc., and it will add 0 powder start the number of picking up the broad, AI printing system, 7 days proficient in the small red book and other text to attract users.

The highest price of 699 yuan "14 days Xiaohongshu 0 powder starting number to receive wide, with DeepSeek to do self media" course purchased 27 people, 44 people bought "DeepSeek + Xiaohongshu point on the play", priced at 589 yuan! These two courses are currently the collection of earnings respectively reached19,000 yuancap (a poem)$26,000; Higher sales include a video class on AI Office General Applications and a paid course on DeepSeek Usage Tips for $98. 2,095 people have been sold, totaling about210,000 dollars..

Most of the content of this type of course is to teach users to generate explosive copywriting, how to choose positioning and other directions, related to the nature of the self media platform, and office-related application courses are DeepSeek's tips on prompting words as well as AI painting and AI video related content.

▲The training class related to DeepSeek, a small red book platform

In the knowledge community platform Knowledge Planet, there are also many training classes directly under the name of teaching you to make money. Search found that the current knowledge planet DeepSeek related planet has hundreds.

One of the planets titled "DeepSeek Practical and efficient to make a small fortune" was launched on February 3, as of the afternoon of February 10, the number of its members has exceeded 7,700, the cost of joining the group of 62 yuan per person, a total of over470,000 dollars.Its supporting services include graphic content, microblog Q&A, exclusive live Q&A and hands-on sharing.

4. More than 2,600 fake domain names and $198 cottage apps popped up

A number of copycat DeepSeek apps with very similar trademarks and names have appeared in the Apple App Store, enticing users to download and top up their membership.

Black Cat Community Complaints Platform DeepSeek related posts have 92, a user complaint that in the Apple App Store search to download DeepSeek, the first appeared DreamDesk ads, mistakenly thought it was DeepSeek download, after the download is completed to use the need to purchase a membership fee for theUS$28.8 (equivalent to about 198 RMB). This situation may be due to the fact that the company has purchased promotional space from the Apple App Store, which is currently unable to retrieve DreamDesk.

DeepSeed is still in the app store, and its details page mentions that the app is based on DeepSeek's DeepSeed app, which requires a flexible subscription fee of $6.99 per week.

▲Apple App Store copycat DeepSeek detail page (Source: Apple App Store)

In addition to the app, numerous domains have appeared that imitate DeepSeek to scam subscription fees.

The latest report disclosed by Chianxin on February 6 stated that Chianxin XLab Labs conducted a statistical analysis of domain name registrations during the period of December 1, 2024 to February 3, 2025, and found that during this period there were a total of2650Counterfeit DeepSeek websites. Massive counterfeit domain name registration activity began on January 26, 2025 and peaked on January 28, and despite a decrease in growth, the number of counterfeit domain names continues to increase.

Its report mentions that some of these counterfeit domains may just be commercially motivated, trying to capitalize on DeepSeek's buzz to sell promising domains or attract users; but there are also a number of malicious actors who use similar domains and interfaces to mislead users and evenDistributing malware, stealing personal information, or fraudulently obtaining subscriptions.

5, the prompt word collection, the most complete use of the tutorial, sales are not satisfactory

The sixth category of merchants offer products in the form of documents, which contain DeepSeek prompt words, usage tutorials, and other files. The price of these products is also relatively low, ranging from $0.01 to $360.

It's worth noting that the first category of merchants selling local deployment documentation will also include guides to using DeepSeek, among other things.

The homepages of such products are often labeled with words such as 10,000 words, the most complete guide, and the first on the net. The highest selling price in the Xiaohongshu platform is a packaged product containing a beginner's guide, a collection of cue words, and other full courses, which is priced at168 dollars.The product page also has the cheapest19.99Getting Started Guide, sales under this buy link are2026, but were unable to recognize their aggregate revenue due to price variations. However, most of the items selling the cue word ensembles had 0 or 1 or 2 sales.

This wave of DeepSeek set off the sale of class carnival, and the previous ChatGPT, Sora burst into flames when the situation is the same, which also requires consumers to sharpen their eyes, in the rapid acceptance of cutting-edge technology at the same time more careful choice.

Second, the phone case jewelry merchants shifted, relying on the information gap to take advantage of the opportunity to profit

These merchants mentioned above all have one thing in common, that is, in the product home page by labeling DeepSeek to attract traffic, and then attached to all kinds of large figures, trafficking in anxiety words to attract users to click on the purchase, but from the point of view of the value of the product, the use of the course, its gold is still open to question.

The first and most intuitive evidence is that, after searching DeepSeek to appear merchants, enter the store homepage will find that its previous products sold with AI, big models have nothing to do, and even have previousSelling cell phone cases and jewelryThe store has been transformed into a DeepSeek business.

There are also merchants on the homepage of their store whose only item for sale is "DeepSeek Local Deployment Services".

As mentioned above, many merchants behave as if they temporarily add DeepSeek to the product's theme page, but the specific integration is not updated on the graphic detail page.

Secondly, most of the products it sells are open source and free, and the related tutorials and cue word compilations can be found in public versions on social platforms.

DeepSeek's chat feature is free and open source, and users can sign up to use it directly with their cell phone number by searching for DeepSeek on the web.

Previously, many users reported registration failures, which may be attributed to the large-scale malicious attacks at the beginning of DeepSeek's explosion, thus making the registration process hectic. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, XLab Labs found that the intensity of attacks against DeepSeek online services suddenly escalated, and the number of attack commands increased by hundreds of times compared to January 28. XLab Labs observed at least two botnets participating in the attacks, launching two waves of attacks in total.

Finally, the courses and products sold above, there are many bloggers and self-media platform content creators, have been publicly released by recording short videos and opening live broadcasts, such as DeepSeek's guide to use, how to write cue words, how to use it without lagging, and other videos and articles.

A user mentioned in an interview with the surging news, she once spent 199 yuan to buy the "DeepSeek by the number of" course, but after using the so-called course to find that the content of the so-called professor are very basic, there is a kind of "cheated" feeling. "A lot of the information that can be found online, the so-called some of the explosive skills are also very general, not much reference, I feel that the money spent is not worth it."

With the explosion of DeepSeek, AI began to come into the public's view and became the talk of the street. The above businessmen take advantage of ordinary users' lack of knowledge about AI and their curiosity and concern about the new technology to promote unrealistic application effects and sell high-priced courses and fake investment products to consumers, which will affect the long-term development of the AI industry.

Third, DeepSeek spoke out urgently, and the same scenario has played out many times in the ChatGPT era

This mess of getting money with DeepSeek has calmed down a bit after DeepSeek issued an emergency statement.

On February 6, DeepSeek urgently released a statement that to obtain DeepSeek modeling services, please recognize the official website and download through regular channels, and pointed out that DeepSeek's official web site and official App do not contain any advertisements and paid items.

Before DeepSeek released its statement, the price of selling related local deployment products reached tens of thousands of dollars, but now you can't see the high-priced products in the related platform search. Some merchants mentioned in an interview that the pricing of tens of thousands of dollars included supporting hardware facilities because the local deployment of DeepSeek has requirements for the user's computer configuration.

There are also videos that teach users to make millions of dollars a month, speculate on stocks to earn money, and so on, which have been taken down in a single search on the Shake Shack platform.

Throughout the development of the entire large model industry, previously ChatGPT, Sora burst into flames when this kind of selling class boom has also been staged, but from the results, each time to earn a lot of money are only the first to rub the flow of people selling classes, really people rely on these courses to earn money less and less.

From the user's point of view, it is not easy to quickly and accurately distinguish the phenomenon of "cutting leeks" with DeepSeek.

First of all, from the technical point of view, the website of the counterfeit domain name is extremely similar to the genuine one, which is difficult for ordinary users to recognize, and because of the rapid development of the corresponding technology of AI, the technology is updated and iterated quickly, and the merchants may rapidly design new "money-making" routes using the new functions, which makes it difficult for the third party to supervise and for the users themselves to supervise and differentiate. From the perspective of third-party supervision and the users themselves, the difficulty of supervision and differentiation is also greater.

Secondly, from the market level, the new technology explosion, the public has a strong demand for related knowledge and applications, coupled with the merchants intentionally selling anxiety, through the means of exaggerated propaganda to promote their money-making courses, etc., are easy to blind the eyes of users. Social or e-commerce platforms to deal with the rhythm, relative to the emergence of new sets of more lagging, can not be eliminated from the root of this situation.

Finally, from the legal regulatory level, the current regulation of knowledge payment in the field of AI is not yet perfect, and the definition criteria and punishment rules for the possible use of AI for false propaganda are not clear. Coupled with the fact that some of the behaviors involved in cutting leeks involve offshore subjects, it is more difficult to track and combat such behaviors.

However, this industrial chain directly related to the user, not only to shine eyes, but also to enhance the awareness of rights, after the purchase of poor-quality courses should take active measures to protect their rights and interests.

Conclusion: DeepSeek kicks off AI boom, popularization and fraud prevention need to go hand-in-hand

The explosion of DeepSeek has made it no longer just a specialized topic in the tech field, but a hot topic widely discussed by the public. It is a more intuitive and concrete way to make ordinary users who originally know little about AI begin to pay attention to this technology. On the one hand, this can accelerate the popularization of AI, so that more users to understand; but on the other hand, this also gives a lot of people through the sale of anxiety to cut leeks to take advantage of the opportunity.

In the face of these chaotic situations, consumers need to sharpen their eyes and be more vigilant. Before deciding to participate in any AI-related learning and investment activities, they must learn more about the real situation of AI through official channels and specialized media.

Note: This article is from Wise Stuff, originally titled "Use DeepSeek to make money, earn millions a day" by Cheng Xi