ByteDance зарабатывает $4 млрд в год на ИИ и разбивает Lark ради роста

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, earns approximately $4 billion per year from artificial intelligence products — a record publicly stated figure among all Chinese technology companies, South China Morning Post reported in July 2026. To grow this result, the holding company split its corporate application Lark into several independent products.

Where the $4 Billion Comes From

ByteDance generates AI revenue primarily through two lines: the consumer chatbot Doubao and the enterprise platform Lark. According to South China Morning Post, no other Chinese technology player — not Baidu with its Ernie Bot, not Alibaba with Qwen, not Tencent with Hunyuan — has publicly disclosed comparable figures.

• ByteDance's annual AI revenue — approximately $4 billion (a record among publicly stated figures for Chinese companies)
• Key products — the Doubao chatbot and the Lark enterprise platform
• Data disclosed in July 2026 based on South China Morning Post reporting
• ByteDance competes domestically with Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent

By mid-2026, Doubao had become one of the most downloaded AI assistants in China. According to industry analysts, the app consistently ranks among the top by monthly active users in the Chinese market.

Why ByteDance Split Lark

Lark is ByteDance's enterprise platform, which combined a messenger, video calls, collaborative document editing, and task management. The company has now split it into several independent products, each to be developed by a separate team.

This move allows ByteDance to embed AI features more deeply into each product — rather than adding them on top of a single monolithic system. Lark competes with Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Workspace primarily in Asian enterprise markets, and the restructuring gives the company more flexibility in serving enterprise clients.

"ByteDance is quietly winning the race in China that most observers are watching in America,"

The Next Web stated in its coverage.

ByteDance's Position in the Global AI Market

ByteDance holds a competitive advantage that most Chinese rivals lack: TikTok operates in most countries around the world, giving the holding company access to a multilingual user base outside China. This matters when training multilingual models and recommendation systems.

According to IDC estimates, the total volume of the AI services market in China could exceed $26 billion by 2027. ByteDance's position with $4 billion already represents a significant market share — and the company clearly intends to expand it through product restructuring.

"This is the largest sum ever publicly stated by a Chinese company,"

South China Morning Post notes, citing data from ByteDance's inner circle.

What This Means

ByteDance is becoming an AI player of global scale: record revenue and strategic product restructuring show that the holding company is placing its biggest bet on artificial intelligence. The key question is whether the company will manage to expand Doubao and other AI products beyond Asia as successfully as it did with TikTok.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Doubao?

Doubao is ByteDance's AI chatbot for the Chinese market, analogous to ChatGPT. By mid-2026, it had become one of the most downloaded AI assistants in China and is the company's primary source of AI revenue.

Why did ByteDance split Lark?

The restructuring allows each product to be developed more rapidly by a dedicated team and enables deeper integration of AI features — rather than adding them on top of a single monolithic platform competing with Teams and Slack.