Cross-border informationDoubao, with 200 million DAU, makes no money from its chat product.
According to sources, Doubao recently adjusted staffing. The general Session team is expected to be cut by about half. Some employees will be transferred to teams such as Doubao commercialization and Feishu, and the rest will be laid off. The team previously had around 50 people and was once the largest team in Doubao, mainly responsible for Doubao's chat product capabilities, including strategy and evaluation.
The staffing adjustment was driven by Zhao Qi, head of Doubao. Zhao has been at ByteDance for more than ten years. He previously led the growth middle platform and Pangle (ByteDance's advertising platform), then moved to the group's human resources department to build a talent system for ByteDance's AI business. In September 2025, Zhao transferred to Doubao. In July this year, the Feishu product team and the Doubao product team were merged, and Zhao became head of the new product team.
Sources said Doubao previously had an independent evaluation team, which Zhao disbanded this year and merged into various business groups. The post-training team responsible for chat-related products is also being downsized. That team is led by Zhu Wenjia, belongs to the large model department Seed, and collaborates with the Doubao product team to conduct post-training based on Seed's foundation models, producing small models that Doubao can directly invoke. Due to reduced business demand, some employees have been transferred to other departments such as Horizon RL and product post-training-office.
Currently, Doubao's revenue business is divided into two lines: Tong Yao, head of Doubao PC and Feishu products, is responsible for "productivity", including Doubao Pro, Doubao Enterprise, and Doubao Work within Feishu; Xia Ning, former head of Douyin e-commerce search, is responsible for life services and e-commerce. There was also a mini-program services business led by Yang Kang, providing services such as ride-hailing within Doubao. That team was recently merged into the first two business lines.
According to previously circulated industry reports, after the 2026 Spring Festival, Doubao's DAU surpassed 200 million, but daily revenue was less than RMB 1 million, mainly from e-commerce commissions. As of May this year, based on Volcano Engine's public API prices, combined with the gross margin of Doubao's large models and user usage habits, Doubao's daily computing power cost is estimated to reach tens of millions of yuan. At the same time, Doubao generates about 10 million yuan in e-commerce transaction volume per day.
Shortly after ByteDance executives visited Anthropic in April, the company began adjusting its AI resource allocation strategy, shifting focus from conversation to enterprise services and commercialization. In June, Doubao launched its Pro version and began charging. Currently, Doubao is still exploring more cost-effective operations and higher revenue.
Seller's Home Review
Doubao has 200 million DAU but earns less than one million yuan a day, creating a severe imbalance between cost and monetization. Cross-border sellers should be alert: the traffic dividend period for large models is over, and AI tools will accelerate commercialization and paid models. It is advisable to lock in long-term low-cost APIs as early as possible or build in-house capabilities, and strictly control tool costs.
Source: E-commerce Pai
Original link: https://www.pai.com.cn/p/01m35y81a42qb9kqpakdej8r84
