CN — TechNode

ByteDance Is Rewiring Its AI Video Bet

AIOctober 27, 20262 min read

ByteDance is combining two of its AI video apps, CapCut's Xiaoyunque and Jimeng, into one product. The company is also using its Seedance video model to earn money from other businesses.

ByteDance merges two AI video tools

ByteDance's CapCut unit recently folded Xiaoyunque into Jimeng. Xiaoyunque makes short dramas automatically, turning a script into storyboards and finished episodes. Jimeng is a bigger creative app for making and editing images and videos. Xiaoyunque keeps its own separate entry point, but its short-drama features now live inside Jimeng. Jimeng's operations and marketing head will oversee the combined product, and the product team stays the same.

Key facts

Both apps are still growing, but their user growth has not yet brought in income that matches the money spent on them.
Kuaishou's Kling 4.0, released this month, supports longer videos, multiple types of input and keyframe control.
Revenue from Seedance as a service for businesses (called MaaS) is much higher than revenue from Jimeng and Xiaoyunque.
ByteDance's overseas short-drama app PineDrama reached the top 10 free iPhone apps in the U.S., Brazil and Thailand.

From simple tools to full workflows

Early AI video tools could only turn text into video. Now the race is about tools that let users control the result and make a whole video from start to finish. Before China's October holiday, ByteDance cut spending on Jimeng's consumer app and moved resources to its professional web product, its overseas version Dreamina, and business income.

Why it matters

The bigger change is in Seedance, the AI model under the apps. ByteDance sells access to Seedance 2.5 through Volcano Engine, so other companies can build video tools on it. Some of those companies may compete with ByteDance's own apps, yet still pay it for the technology. This means each ByteDance app must prove it can grow, keep users, or earn money. The company seems to be splitting its strategy: use consumer apps to reach people, focus creation tools on professionals, and sell Seedance to others.

What to watch

Whether the merged Jimeng app attracts more paying users.
How fast Seedance revenue grows as more outside companies use it.
Whether PineDrama keeps its place in app store charts.
How rivals such as Kling and MiniMax's H3 compete for business customers.

Glossary

ByteDance: The Chinese company that owns TikTok and makes many apps, including Jimeng and Xiaoyunque.
CapCut: A video editing app; its unit within ByteDance folded Xiaoyunque into Jimeng.
Seedance: ByteDance's AI video model that can create and edit videos from text, images, video and audio.
Volcano Engine: ByteDance's cloud service that lets businesses and developers use its AI models through APIs.
MaaS: Model-as-a-service: selling access to an AI model so others can use it in their products.
PineDrama: ByteDance's overseas short-drama app that is free and supported by ads.

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