Close Menu
Influential MagazineInfluential Magazine
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • More
    • Web Stories
    • Editor’s Picks
    • Press Release

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest business and finance news for entrepreneurs all around the world.

What's Hot
Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

May 24, 2025
Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

May 22, 2025
Wedding Belles Love Expands with Size-Inclusive, Same-Day Bridalwear Boutique

Wedding Belles Love Expands with Size-Inclusive, Same-Day Bridalwear Boutique

May 22, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Influential MagazineInfluential Magazine
SUBSCRIBE
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • More
    • Web Stories
    • Editor’s Picks
    • Press Release
Influential MagazineInfluential Magazine
Home » How TikTok’s Parent, ByteDance, Became an A.I. Powerhouse

How TikTok’s Parent, ByteDance, Became an A.I. Powerhouse

April 11, 20254 Mins Read Business
How TikTok’s Parent, ByteDance, Became an A.I. Powerhouse
Share
Facebook Twitter Reddit Telegram Pinterest Email

The Chinese internet giant ByteDance has made some of the world’s most popular apps: TikTok and, in China, Douyin and Toutiao.

In the United States, TikTok claims 170 million users. But in China, about 700 million use the domestic version, Douyin, and 300 million scroll the headlines on Toutiao, a news app. Every video that ByteDance’s users watch or post gives the company another data point about how people use the internet. For years, ByteDance has applied that wealth of information to make its apps more appealing, improving its ability to recommend content to keep users hooked.

ByteDance is also using the data as the linchpin of a growing business in artificial intelligence. The company has invested billions of dollars in the infrastructure needed to power A.I. systems, building vast data centers in China and Southeast Asia and buying up advanced semiconductors. ByteDance is also on an A.I. hiring spree.

ByteDance is best known outside China for TikTok, an app so popular that at least 20 governments have adopted partial bans over concerns about its influence on national security and public opinion.

Concern over how ByteDance uses data has driven lawmakers in Washington to try to force a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations. On Friday, President Trump extended a looming deadline by 75 days into mid-June.

But in China all that data has helped ByteDance expand its business far beyond social media and gain an edge in the global race to build advanced A.I. technology.

“ByteDance has all this data, all the time, from millions of users,” said Wei Sun, a principal analyst in artificial intelligence at Counterpoint Research in Beijing.

Officials in Beijing have pushed China’s tech companies to pivot from entertainment apps to what the government sees as an existential goal: self-reliance in cutting-edge technologies that also have military applications, like semiconductors, supercomputers and artificial intelligence.

ByteDance has embraced that mission. Last year, the company spent roughly $11 billion on infrastructure like data centers, networking equipment and computer chips, according to a report by Zheshang Securities, a Chinese financial firm.

The Biden administration set up rules to try to keep Chinese companies from getting access to those kinds of chips, particularly ones made by Nvidia, the Silicon Valley giant. But ByteDance has found ways to get the computing power it needs to train its systems — in part by using data centers outside China and most likely, analysts say, by buying chips made by Chinese chipmakers like Huawei and Cambricon.

While these Chinese-made chips cannot do everything the Nvidia chips can do, they work well enough to help companies like ByteDance provide A.I. services to people and businesses in China. Chinese tech companies have been “encouraged to adopt local options” for buying chips, said Lian Jye Su, an analyst at Omdia, a market research firm.

All this spending has helped ByteDance make one of the most popular artificial intelligence apps in China. Its chatbot, Doubao, gained 60 million users within its first three months on the market last year. It was China’s most popular chatbot, beating rivals made by Baidu and Alibaba-backed Moonshot, until the start-up DeepSeek released its own this year.

ByteDance showed how closely connected its app ecosystem is with its A.I. efforts when it recently started allowing some users to chat with Doubao inside the Douyin app.

In 2021, ByteDance started Volcano Engine, a business that lets other companies pay to use the technologies that made TikTok, Douyin and Toutiao so addictive, like tools to analyze information and the algorithms that recommend videos.

Some of these services were natural applications of the technology that ByteDance developed for Douyin and TikTok, like filters that can make people appear much older or superimpose sparkly hearts on their faces. ByteDance used its experience making these filters to help companies like Haier and Hisense develop movement-tracking technology for gesture-controlled home appliances like smart televisions.

GAC Group, one of China’s largest makers of electric vehicles, is using Volcano Engine to translate and manage data for cars sold outside China. And Mercedes-Benz said last year that it would use Volcano Engine in its in-car voice assistant and navigation system in China.

ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment.

Company job postings show that ByteDance is hiring for hundreds of A.I.-related roles. The company recently directed its engineering team to focus on a milestone that tech companies like OpenAI, Google and DeepSeek are also chasing — making an A.I. system that is as smart as or smarter than humans, often referred to as artificial general intelligence.

While many Chinese companies have started A.I. projects, a much smaller number have the resources to invest in the personnel and computing power needed to advance the technology. Some experts expect that a research team somewhere in the world will make this kind of system within the next year or two.

Claire Fu contributed research from Seoul.

Artificial Intelligence Beijing Bytedance Technology Co Ltd China Computers and the Internet DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co Ltd Douyin (ByteDance) Mobile Applications Social Media TikTok (ByteDance) Toutiao (Chinese News Platform) United States
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Telegram Reddit Email
Previous ArticleAutoworkers Union Chief Gives Trump’s Tariffs a Mixed Review
Next Article Uber’s Annual Lost and Found List Includes a Mannequin Head and Chain Saw

Related Posts

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

May 24, 2025
Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

May 22, 2025
Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

May 19, 2025
Video: How Staffing Shortages Have Plagued Newark Airport

Video: How Staffing Shortages Have Plagued Newark Airport

May 17, 2025
Consumers Show Signs of Strain Amid Trump’s Tariff Rollout

Consumers Show Signs of Strain Amid Trump’s Tariff Rollout

May 15, 2025
Inside Elon Musk’s X Feed: Trumpism, Falsehoods and Lots of Love for Elon Musk

Inside Elon Musk’s X Feed: Trumpism, Falsehoods and Lots of Love for Elon Musk

May 15, 2025
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Demo
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
Don't Miss
Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

By News RoomMay 24, 2025

Photo Illustration by Zak Bickel/The New York Times; Photographs via Getty; Unsplash Tariffs are up.…

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

May 22, 2025
Wedding Belles Love Expands with Size-Inclusive, Same-Day Bridalwear Boutique

Wedding Belles Love Expands with Size-Inclusive, Same-Day Bridalwear Boutique

May 22, 2025
Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

May 19, 2025

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest business and finance news for entrepreneurs all around the world.

About Us
About Us

Influential Magazine is one of the top news portals about Business and Finance news for Entrepreneurs and leaders all around the world, follow us for more intersting articles and news.

Our Picks
Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

May 19, 2025
Video: How Staffing Shortages Have Plagued Newark Airport

Video: How Staffing Shortages Have Plagued Newark Airport

May 17, 2025
Father and Son Duo Launch PlayZer Media to Support Southern England’s Grassroots Music Scene

Father and Son Duo Launch PlayZer Media to Support Southern England’s Grassroots Music Scene

May 16, 2025
Trending Now
Inside Elon Musk’s X Feed: Trumpism, Falsehoods and Lots of Love for Elon Musk

Inside Elon Musk’s X Feed: Trumpism, Falsehoods and Lots of Love for Elon Musk

May 15, 2025
World Economic Forum Investigating Allegations Against Founder Klaus Schwab

World Economic Forum Investigating Allegations Against Founder Klaus Schwab

May 15, 2025
A.I. Was Coming for Radiologists’ Jobs. So Far, They’re Just More Efficient.

A.I. Was Coming for Radiologists’ Jobs. So Far, They’re Just More Efficient.

May 14, 2025
Influential Magazine
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram LinkedIn
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms & Conditions
© 2025 Influential Mag. All Rights Reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.