On October 19, in response to recent concerns regarding the topic of "over half of the domestic computing power being used to produce light entertainment," Doubao's PR head @Liu Xing stated that the computing power data is "somewhat unreliable." He noted that, for ByteDance, only about 10% of the company's total computing power is utilized for training and inference of video generation models.
The topic raised by Doubao originates from a "Investor Relations Activity Record" by Chinese Online. Chinese Online stated that 55% of domestic AI Token consumption is used for short dramas and video generation, 24% for e-commerce advertising, and only 15% is truly allocated for research and development. The Token consumption for AI short dramas and video generation has reached more than twice that of software development, becoming the largest core consumption scenario in Token economics.
Liu Xing's response directly questions the aforementioned data, pointing out the significant discrepancy between ByteDance's actual computing power allocation and the claim of "over half of the computing power used for producing light entertainment." According to CNMO Technology, Chinese Online analyzed the reasons for the high Token consumption in AI short dramas. The short drama business has extremely high demands for video generation and Token turnover speed, and AI simulated dramas have stricter requirements for frame rates and 1080p high definition, resulting in Token consumption that is typically two to three times that of AI animated dramas.
ByteDance's Computing Power Allocation Differs from Industry Reality
Furthermore, during the production process, to meet the director's narrative and shot requirements, the team must repeatedly generate and filter images through "card drawing," leading to continuous consumption. Data shows that in the first eight months of 2026, 430,000 micro short dramas were launched domestically, which is 13 times that of the entire previous year. The computing power cost for a 12-episode short drama is close to 200,000 yuan. The "AI-Driven Global Micro Short Drama Innovation Development Report" released in April this year indicates that by 2025, China's micro short drama market size will exceed 14 billion dollars, accounting for 77.78% of the global market.