u/Great-Beautiful-6383

Costco has members, blockbuster products, and global influence—yet it has always lacked a "super entry point" to cover the Chinese market.

That entry point ultimately turned out to be JD.com.

On July 22, the globally renowned membership-based warehouse retailer Costco officially announced a deepened strategic partnership with JD.com, granting JD.com the authorization to serve as its exclusive official e-commerce partner in mainland China.

This marks a significant shift in Costco's development strategy in China. Previously, Costco relied primarily on physical stores to deliver the consumer experience; now, it will leverage JD.com's platform capabilities to further translate its brand influence into online sales scale.

Moreover, this collaboration did not happen overnight.

As early as May this year, the Costco official flagship store had already made its debut on the JD.com platform, with both parties conducting preliminary trials and operational磨合 (alignment and fine-tuning).

Based on current performance, the collaboration is progressing at a remarkably rapid pace.

Data shows that the JD.com Costco official flagship store has already garnered over 200,000 followers, with cumulative visits exceeding 30 million. Among these, Costco's private-label brand, Kirkland Signature, has performed particularly impressively, with its nut products being snapped up multiple times.

In addition, the store has listed approximately 700 products, and consumers in some regions can now receive their orders on the same day at the earliest.

For Costco, this partnership with JD.com addresses not only the issue of online sales channels, but also the long-standing challenge of limited expansion speed in the Chinese market.

Over the past few years, Costco has enjoyed tremendous brand popularity in China, yet its number of physical stores has remained limited. Consumers recognize the quality of its products, but are often deterred by long distances and high shopping costs, ultimately failing to convert interest into actual purchases.

This tension became apparent as early as Costco's initial entry into China.

In 2019, the opening of Costco's first Shanghai store caused a huge sensation on its very first day.

Consumers lined up to enter, with parking waits exceeding three hours and checkout lines stretching to nearly two hours. Due to the overwhelming concentration of foot traffic, Costco temporarily restricted store entry and suspended operations that day to ensure a satisfactory shopping experience.

This "grand opening frenzy" demonstrated consumers' recognition of the Costco model.

However, it also exposed a practical problem: relying solely on a limited number of physical stores makes it difficult for a global retail giant to sustain and expand its influence in the Chinese market.

As a result, Costco is exploring a new growth model: preserving its offline membership system while further expanding the reach of its online channels. Members will continue to enjoy exclusive benefits, while non-member consumers will also be able to purchase some products, though with possible price differences.

Costco has stated that this year marks the brand's 50th anniversary, and the deepened partnership with JD.com represents an important step in its continued commitment to the Chinese market.

The reason JD.com was ultimately chosen as Costco's "entry point" lies in its years of sustained investment in full-chain fulfillment capabilities.

First, JD.com possesses a nationwide warehousing and logistics network that can effectively compensate for Costco's limited physical store presence, bringing a convenient shopping experience to consumers across more regions.

Second, JD.com has over 700 million annual active users, a large portion of whom have strong purchasing power and sustained demand for imported goods, quality products, and household consumption upgrades—closely aligning with Costco's positioning of "curated quality products at great value."

In addition, JD.com's long-term investments in areas such as fresh-food cold chains, cross-border goods, and bulky-item delivery have also equipped it to handle the complex product operation needs of international retail giants.

In June of last year, Liu Qiangdong mentioned in an internal speech that JD.com operates over 1,600 logistics centers, carries more than 10 million self-operated products, and maintains inventory turnover days between 30 and 50. He also cited a hard metric: JD.com's overall expense ratio for self-operated retail is only 10%.

In his view, these numbers reflect the foundational retail capabilities that JD.com has built through long-term investment.

It can be said that Costco excels in global product sourcing and procurement, while JD.com excels in last-mile delivery and user reach—the two complement each other, and neither is dispensable.

In fact, when it comes to partnering with international retail giants, JD.com is no newcomer.

As early as June 21, 2016, JD.com entered into a strategic partnership with Walmart, and subsequently, Yihaodian was integrated into JD.com's platform.

In August of the same year, the Sam's Club official flagship store officially launched on JD.com, opening up its online sales channel.

After years of development, Sam's Club has performed impressively on the JD.com platform. It currently ranks No. 1 on JD.com's supermarket store rankings, with over 13 million followers on its store page.

Public information shows that Sam's Club has established an integrated online-and-offline presence in China, leveraging over 60 physical stores and more than 500 front-end warehouses to create a "one store, multiple warehouses" delivery system, enabling delivery of high-frequency products in as little as one hour in the fastest cases.

The success of Sam's Club also demonstrates the immense potential of combining traditional membership-based retail with internet platforms.

In addition to Sam's Club, JD.com has continued to attract global retail brands to its platform in recent years.

In November 2024, JD.com partnered with Amazon Global Selling, and the Amazon Global Official Flagship Store officially launched on JD.com, bringing consumers over 400,000 overseas products and more than 12,000 international brands, further enriching the cross-border shopping experience.

The global home furnishings retail giant IKEA also joined the JD.com platform in August last year, further enriching JD.com's quality consumption ecosystem.

Now, Costco's choice of JD.com is essentially based on its recognition of the comprehensive capabilities JD.com has built in channels, logistics, and user connectivity.

From Sam's Club to Costco, and with more international brands joining the platform, JD.com is creating not just a shopping platform, but a consumer network that connects high-quality global goods with Chinese consumers.

Moreover, behind this partnership also lies a shift in JD.com's own strategic direction.

In the past, JD.com's most distinctive user perception was its association with 3C digital products.

With guarantees of authenticity, fast delivery, and after-sales service, JD.com has long served as a key gateway for consumers purchasing mobile phones, computers, home appliances, and other products.

However, as growth in traditional strong categories such as smartphones and home appliances has slowed, general merchandise, household consumption, and on-demand retail are becoming important directions for JD.com in its search for new growth.

This shift is also reflected in financial data.

JD.com's first-quarter 2026 earnings report shows that revenue from electronic products and home appliances declined by 8.4% year-over-year, while revenue from daily necessities and general merchandise grew by 14.9% year-over-year.

The contrast between growth in one area and decline in another reflects that JD.com is gradually expanding from low-frequency consumption categories such as home appliances and 3C products to covering high-frequency consumption scenarios including food and daily necessities.

In other words, JD.com is transforming from a platform known for its strength in 3C products to one that covers a broader range of household consumption scenarios.

To further strengthen its focus on quality consumption and overseas product offerings, JD.com launched the "10-Billion-Yuan, 1,000-Category New Growth Plan" last July. According to the plan, over the next three years, JD.com will introduce 1,000 new overseas brands through cross-border channels and help these brands achieve a cumulative sales growth of 10 billion yuan on the platform.

The addition of a membership-based retail brand like Costco precisely helps JD.com further strengthen its positioning in "quality household consumption," transforming low-frequency appliance purchases into high-frequency repeat-purchase scenarios for food and daily necessities.

This may well be the deeper strategic value of this partnership for JD.com.

What JD.com truly aims to change is not merely adding a few more consumer categories, but breaking the market's entrenched perception of it as a "3C e-commerce platform."

From home appliances, mobile phones, and computers to food, daily necessities, and household consumption, JD.com wants to evolve the reason users open its app—from "I need to buy a big-ticket item" to "all kinds of everyday consumption needs can be fulfilled here."

And the addition of membership-based retail brands like Costco and Sam's Club is a crucial step for JD.com in filling out its high-frequency consumption scenarios.

In an era where traffic dividends in e-commerce are gradually fading, and traditional shelf-based e-commerce is shifting from acquiring new users to deeply cultivating existing user value, the core of platform competition has moved from "how much traffic you have" to "how much consumption frequency you can generate."

In sum, holding onto the foundational 3C and home appliance business while expanding into new household consumption scenarios such as daily necessities is not about choosing between two different paths for JD.com—it is a strategic reconfiguration centered on user value.

The outcome of future retail competition will depend not only on who has more brands and products, but on who can truly connect global supply chains, platform capabilities, and consumer demand.

For JD.com, what it is building may not just be a larger shopping platform, but a consumption entry point that covers more life scenarios.

July 22 news — Meituan Drones made an appearance at the 2026 Shanghai International Low-Altitude Economy Expo, not only showcasing its full range of self-developed hardware and software products but also unveiling its low-altitude logistics solution, which encompasses autonomous delivery drones, an intelligent dispatching system, and an efficient operations framework.

As of the end of June 2026, Meituan Drones had launched low-altitude delivery services in cities including Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Dubai, with cumulative orders completed exceeding 1 million. At the same time, Meituan Drones is fully opening up its solution capabilities to authorized service partners nationwide, enabling more collaborators to efficiently deploy in the low-altitude economy and share in the experience of large-scale operations.

In May of this year, Meituan Drones announced that its "low-altitude air network" had entered regular operations, while simultaneously launching a national recruitment plan for authorized service partners. In vertical industries, Meituan Drones' low-altitude logistics solution is already in routine operation. Taking the medical scenario as an example: focusing on blood, laboratory samples, pre-hospital emergency supplies, and special medicines, Meituan Drones has established an end-to-end express delivery network, having delivered over 810,000 laboratory samples and medicines cumulatively. For diverse on-demand delivery scenarios such as scenic areas, residential communities, and commercial properties, it has achieved high-frequency, high-density, and all-weather operations.

Meituan Drones offers three low-altitude logistics solutions—pad landing, cable descent, and cabinet landing—which can be flexibly matched based on site conditions and business needs.

The pad landing solution involves landing on a simple helipad, with an integrated fuselage and cargo container design. It is suitable for fixed-point deliveries between designated locations, such as medical material transport between multi-campus hospitals or industrial sample transport between factories. The cable descent solution requires no helipad construction and no landing, enabling smooth and secure cargo lowering via cable in complex environments. It is suitable for scenarios like urban alleys, villa courtyards, and steep mountainous areas. The cabinet landing solution uses intelligent docking stations that coordinate with drones to complete cargo dispatch, reception, storage, and delivery. It is suitable for instant retail scenarios such as food delivery in municipal parks and scenic areas.

The capital market is never short of comeback stories against all odds.

And no one has taken this to the extreme quite like Jia Yueting.

Over the past nine years, his labels have never been positive: billions in defaulted debts, the godfather of PPT carmaking, and "coming back next week" becoming an internet meme across China.

But just when everyone had written him off, FF suddenly rolled out a stunning combination of moves that forcibly turned the tide of public opinion.

Robotics business orders surged more than tenfold, with a single order exceeding $400,000. At the same time, it officially announced a partnership with the Argentine national team—where Messi plays—securing an official cooperation in the North American robotics sector.

What's more critical is that in the 12 years since FF was founded, this is the first time it has generated positive gross margin from its physical business operations without relying on financing cash infusions.

As soon as the news broke, the entire internet exploded.

One camp of netizens exclaimed that Jia Yueting had finally turned things around, shaking off the messy car-making business and making money through tangible operations.

But many more remained extremely level-headed and saw through the playbook at a glance: changing tracks without changing tactics—once the old narrative collapsed, switch to the next hot trend and continue packaging the capital market story.

Many people only know that FF has crossed over into robotics, but they have no idea about the specific sector or application scenarios—and this is the core source of the debate across the internet.

Unlike Tesla's commercial robots, FF's robotics business focuses on the lightweight consumer robotics track.

K-12 educational robots are FF's current core ace in the hole for explosive orders, profitability, and performance targets, and they are also the company's absolute main business at this stage.

The products are primarily quadruped robot dogs and small humanoid robots, paired with a full suite of programming teaching systems and AI data courses, tailored to meet high-demand scenarios such as student programming training, AI popular science education, and classroom instruction.

The lightweight AI data collection robots, on the other hand, are aimed at overseas small and medium-sized tech companies and data service providers, used for basic tasks such as outdoor environmental data collection, simple scenario mapping, and lightweight data annotation.

To sum up, FF's robots do not compete on high-end industrial technology, nor are they hardcore scientific research equipment. The sector has low barriers to entry, fast implementation, and stable demand—and this is the core prerequisite for its ability to generate orders and turn a profit quickly.

However, the reason FF was able to quickly blow up the consumer robotics market is not because of its technological prowess, but rather because its business model is clever enough.

Industry media have confirmed with hard evidence: FF's profitability and shipments in robotics rely on a mature OEM rebranding arbitrage model.

All hardware is sourced domestically from China. FF is only responsible for rebranding, simple assembly, and software packaging, then selling at high prices leveraging its U.S.-listed brand and overseas channels.

Throughout the entire process, there is no in-house development of core hardware, no proprietary motion control technology, and no underlying algorithmic moats.

The so-called profit is essentially just a play on the information gap between China and abroad, plus brand premium.

By merely layering on a lightweight operating system and simple programming course packaging, FF can easily cover its OEM, logistics, and operational costs, while generating a handsome positive gross margin on paper.

Jia Yueting has long mastered this asset-light arbitrage playbook.

Previously, the new model FF launched was also confirmed to be a rebadged version of Great Wall Motor's Wey Gaoshan, with auto industry executives personally confirming the cooperation.

From rebadged cars to rebadged robots, his logic has never changed: no factories, no heavy R&D, no piling up of heavy assets—only brand packaging and channel markups.

It is precisely this low-cost, low-risk model that has allowed FF to generate orders quickly and produce revenue, directly shattering the rumors that the company had been abandoned.

FF's robotics order volume has multiplied more than tenfold, with total value exceeding $400,000.

And FF is striking while the iron is hot, announcing the independent spin-off and separate financing of its robotics business. The purpose is quite straightforward: capitalizing on the momentum of short-term orders to launch a new round of capital operations, completely bidding farewell to the money-burning black hole of the car business, and continuing to tell a new story and raise funds in this new track.

Why did Jia Yueting suddenly completely abandon the car-making business he had cultivated for a decade, and pivot to betting on consumer robotics?

It's not strategic foresight—it's because the car-making track is already completely dead.

Over ten years, FF has raised over $3.2 billion in cumulative financing, equivalent to 23 billion RMB, all of which has been burned through.

The results have been abysmal: as of the first half of 2026, cumulative total vehicle deliveries are less than 30 units, with some delivered vehicles being fully recalled due to safety issues—quality control has completely collapsed.

The financial data is even more shocking: full-year 2025 revenue was only $540,000, with a net loss approaching $400 million, and the company was steadily burning nearly $9 million per month.

Heavy-asset car-making, factory construction, and supply chain build-out represent a never-ending money-burning game, with no sign of profitability on the horizon.

In this desperate situation, the OEM robotics business—which requires no heavy assets, no heavy R&D, can generate results quickly, and fits civilian mass-market demand scenarios—became FF's only lifeline.

FF's ability to smoothly transform, deliver quickly, and generate gross margins relies centrally on large-scale capital infusions.

In the first half of this year, FF closed multiple rounds of institutional financing in quick succession, securing a total of $70 million over two months, which thoroughly alleviated its strained cash flow pressure.

With cash in hand, Jia Yueting officially made a full track switch.

In May, Jia Yueting returned to serve as global CEO. FF completely stripped off its automaker label, upgrading itself to a "Physical AI Ecosystem Company," going all-in on the humanoid and bionic consumer robotics track. It successively raised its delivery targets, ultimately locking in 2,000 units for the full year.

By the end of June, FF had cumulatively delivered 242 robots, exceeding its quarterly target and setting a company record for the first positive gross margin from a single business line in its twelve-year history.

The sports IP partnership that has gone viral this time is, in essence, a clever marketing tactic serving the OEM business, precisely tailored to the needs of the education sector.

FF secured exclusive sponsorship rights in the robotics field for the Argentine national team in North America, tying itself to Messi's top-tier traffic and obtaining a full package of benefits including official endorsement, overseas promotion, and offline events.

With zero technology investment and zero heavy-asset input, it leverages brand premium through nothing more than a sponsorship fee—a textbook case of low-cost marketing arbitrage that aligns perfectly with FF's current asset-light approach and its education-sector strategy.

Another point that has piqued everyone's curiosity: with billions in debt weighing on him, why can Jia Yueting still secure institutional investment?

Yet U.S. stock market institutions remain willing to back him heavily, and the reasons are quite pragmatic.

First, the consumer robotics sector is currently in a windfall dividend period—a trillion-dollar blue-ocean market. The high-demand education sector has strong potential for real-world implementation, and FF is one of the few pure-play robotics concepts available on U.S. exchanges, with very few alternative targets.

Second, the asset-light model carries extremely low risk. It doesn't require burning massive amounts of money, building factories, or stockpiling production lines. Small-batch deliveries can consistently generate gross margins, completely eliminating the risk of endless cash incineration that eventually hits zero—a risk that defined the car-making era.

Third, the educational teaching aids sector has stable, inelastic demand and predictable cash flows. Compared to the elusive promise of autonomous driving, it is far easier to deliver tangible results and package a compelling capital-market story.

Looking at the current situation, FF has broken free from the endless cycle of massive losses and bottomless cash burning that defined its car-making era. By adopting an asset-light model in consumer robotics, it has validated a short-term business logic of "small input, measurable return," allowing the company to survive.

However, the core problems remain completely unresolved: no in-house R&D capabilities, no industry moats, a business that is entirely replaceable, and a fundamental lack of long-term self-sustaining profitability.

The so-called ecosystem build-out is still the familiar narrative of drawing pies in the sky.

Looking back at Jia Yueting's entrepreneurial history, LeEco's "ecosystem synergy" eventually devolved into "ecosystem debt," and the billion-dollar car-making dream ended in complete failure.

He excels at identifying trends and packaging stories, but his greatest weakness lies in execution and delivering on promises.

It must be admitted, though, that Jia Yueting's instinct for spotting the next big wave still outshines that of the vast majority of entrepreneurs.

The current polarization of public opinion is, at its core, a matter of perspective: looking at the financials, one sees a recovery; looking at the business model, one sees a familiar playbook.

All the positive developments serve the sole purposes of fundraising and maintaining the company's listing status—they have never addressed the company's fundamental chronic ailments.

This time, Jia Yueting has merely climbed out of the deepest pit—he has not truly reached the summit and staged a comeback.

OEM arbitrage can prop up financial reports for a quarter, stabilize stock prices in the short term, and avoid delisting. It can allow capital to flow in and out in an orderly manner. But it cannot sustain the long-term future of a technology company.

A true turnaround has never been about a single order or short-term gross margins.

Until those fundamental results are delivered, both the praise and the mockery are premature.

The only certainty is this: the man who knows best how to ride the next wave and tell the most compelling story is, once again, standing at the tipping point of a capital-markets comeback.

I. Huawei 5G returns to global markets

"I am not afraid of pressure from the outside. No matter how they try to press me down, I am not afraid, and I will keep moving forward firmly." More than a decade ago, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said these words. At that time, he insisted on the 3G path against much opposition, drawing considerable skepticism, yet it also laid the foundation for Huawei's future leadership in the communications field.

In fact, from 3G all the way to 5G, the external pressure Huawei has faced has never ceased.

In 2019, due to comprehensive technology sanctions imposed by the United States, Huawei was unable to sell 5G phones normally in overseas markets and had to settle for launching 4G models instead, which drew sighs of regret from the industry.

Yet with that same resilience of "not fearing outside pressure," Huawei's mobile phone business managed to survive a full seven years of dormancy, and finally the clouds parted to reveal the moon.

A few days ago, at a product launch event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Huawei officially unveiled its 5G flagship phones, the Pura 90s Pro Max and the Pura 90s Pro. According to official data, both models come with full 5G capabilities, supporting 22 frequency bands and covering mainstream carriers across multiple global markets.

This marks the first time since Huawei was sanctioned that it has officially launched a 5G flagship in overseas markets, signaling the official return of Huawei's 5G phones to global consumer markets.

In terms of real-world performance, Huawei's 5G products are no slouch. A tech blogger from Saudi Arabia tested the devices on a local operator's network and found that the 5G download speeds of the Pura 90s series can exceed 1,100 Mbps, reaching the mainstream 5G standard of current flagship models.

Not only is the pricing roughly 20% lower than that of Samsung and Apple's 5G flagship products, following a high-end route with a strong cost-performance focus, but the launch in the Malaysian market also comes with multiple promotional offers aimed at quickly regaining a foothold in the local market. Going forward, Huawei will use Malaysia as a base to expand into other Southeast Asian markets, with 5G models for the Middle East and European markets also set to roll out successively.

II. Chinese smartphones sweep the global market

In fact, while it is regrettable that Huawei's overseas presence was interrupted over the past few years, Chinese manufacturers have never ceded ground in the global market share battle.

According to the global smartphone shipment report for the first half of 2026 released by market research firm IDC, among the top five brands worldwide, three Chinese manufacturers—Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo—all made the list, together accounting for nearly 30% of the global market share.

Among them, Xiaomi secured the third spot globally with its extensive international footprint, holding an 11.2% market share. Although this represents a slight decline compared to the same period last year, the share of high-end model sales has continued to rise. OPPO and Vivo, leveraging their differentiated advantages in imaging, fast charging, and other areas, have steadily expanded in Southeast Asian and European markets, capturing 10.4% and 7.6% of the market respectively, ranking fourth and fifth.

It is worth noting that unlike the early days when going global relied on low-cost, high-volume strategies, Chinese smartphones have now shed their low-end labels. With continuous innovation in areas such as in-house imaging chips, hundred-watt fast charging, and foldable form factors, they are launching a systematic assault on the high-end market.

Take the foldable phone segment, for example—Chinese brands now account for over 70% of global shipments, overtaking overseas brands in this premium niche category.

Huawei's return to overseas markets with its 5G flagship this time adds a crucial missing piece to the globalization journey of Chinese smartphones.

As a former global No. 2 smartphone maker, Huawei has deep-rooted strengths in the high-end market and carrier channels. The return of its 5G capabilities will allow it to re-engage in the global high-end market competition, forming a combined force with other Chinese brands to jointly challenge the high-end market landscape long dominated by Samsung and Apple.

In short, with continued technological breakthroughs and deep market cultivation across the Chinese smartphone camp, the competitiveness of Chinese brands in the global market is set to keep growing, and the future of Chinese smartphone going global looks bright.

Original author: CrossBorder Pie

July 19 news — Market sources report that leading large-model AI company Moonshot AI (Yue Zhi An Mian) has sent an IPO proposal to investors, with expectations that it could complete its Hong Kong stock listing within six months at the earliest. The company has not yet responded to the matter.

Not long ago, Moonshot AI announced the launch of its most powerful large model to date, Kimi K3. According to disclosures, K3 is a 2.8 trillion-parameter model with a 1 million-token context window. It is currently the world's largest open-source model by parameter count and the first model to exceed 2 trillion parameters. It is designed for cutting-edge intelligent scenarios such as software engineering, knowledge work, and deep reasoning. Within hours of its release, Kimi K3 topped the highly regarded AI code tool evaluation leaderboard, Arena.

"The larger the parameter count, the higher the ceiling of capability, enabling more intelligent model performance," said a representative from Moonshot AI. "Parameters are like the neural connections in the human brain. Nearly 3 trillion parameters mean that the model can pack more knowledge and patterns into its 'brain'—understanding more, thinking deeper, and responding more accurately."

July 12 news — Wang Xingxing, founder of Unitree Robotics, recently delivered a keynote speech as an industry representative at the 2026 Wangfujing Forum. During his speech, Wang made a clear judgment: "Robots will eventually move into broader markets, reach ordinary consumers, and enter real life."

Wang Xingxing stated that Unitree Robotics began laying out products and channel development for the general public very early on. In its early days, the company established official online channels, allowing consumers to learn about and purchase robot products directly through the internet. Early this year, Unitree Robotics officially opened its first direct-sale store in China at Beijing's Wangfujing. It is understood that the company chose this location for its first store not simply to sell products, but to create a physical window where the public can get up close to robots, experience them, and understand them.

He broke down the current mass-market value of robots into three core directions:

First, today's robots are like personal computers 30 years ago—they are becoming important secondary development and creation platforms for professional developers and tech enthusiasts to carry out cutting-edge AI technology innovation practices. More and more creators can rely on robots to research new algorithms and develop new features. As a result, robots are no longer a niche tech toy but have become a key gateway connecting mass consumption, developer innovation, and future industrial applications.

Second, robots are rapidly entering home and parent-child scenarios. Robots can serve as an important medium for children to get exposed to science, understand engineering, and cultivate an interest in innovation, allowing primary and secondary school students in China to access the same cutting-edge products used in top global university labs during their formative years.

In addition, robots are providing new emotional value for commercial performances and brand promotion scenarios. Today's consumer market places increasing emphasis on experiential quality and shareability. Whether at shopping mall events, brand launch events, corporate exhibition halls, or cultural tourism performances, robots can quickly become the core highlight that captures attention.

"What we see today is that robots are becoming a new type of consumer product. In the future, we believe robots will develop further—they can enter thousands of households as commodities and also penetrate more aspects of social operations as productivity tools," Wang said. He believes that robots can help humans accomplish more complex, dangerous, and high-intensity tasks, significantly improving production efficiency while freeing people from heavy, dangerous, repetitive labor, allowing them to devote more energy to high-value creative and managerial work.

Cooling gadget blows up

On cross-border e-commerce shelves, a wave of Chinese-made cooling products is being snapped up.

Recently, a neck cooling ring has gone viral on TikTok. Data from Fastmoss shows that this neck cooling ring has sold over 13,500 units in the TikTok US market, with total GMV reaching $253,100 — equivalent to approximately 1.72 million yuan

This product comes from the cross-border store "Hip Hop Yangtuo" and is currently priced at $18.98–$45.99. The PCM phase-change material inside turns solid at low temperatures, providing a cooling effect that lasts 2 to 3 hours.

Although this product was listed last year, its sudden popularity this year isn't just due to the hotter weather — promotional videos by TikTok creators have also played a major role. In fact, back in June last year, the same influencer also promoted this product, wearing the neck ring while walking under the scorching sun to demonstrate its cooling effect in the very same style.

In fact, there are traceable strategies for selecting winning products. For seasonal bestsellers like these, making iterative upgrades in materials or design, combined with short videos from influencers to boost conversion rates, can easily revive a product's momentum through emotional marketing.

For cross-border sellers, the takeaway from this case is quite straightforward: you don't always have to chase entirely new product categories. Even "old products" that have already been validated by the market can become hits again if you repackage them with fresh content.

Summer economy

Summer has always been the prime season for cooling products, with all sorts of "cooling gadgets" taking turns in the spotlight. If the cooling ring represents a "small business" boom, then the recent European air conditioner market tells a completely different story.

This year, Europe experienced unprecedented super heatwaves, with many countries breaking high-temperature records. Air conditioners, once considered non-essential appliances, have suddenly become the most sought-after must-have items, with many portable AC units selling out overseas.

Among them, the most talked-about product is Midea's PortaSplit. This product hits the mark perfectly — it requires no drilling for installation and can be assembled in just ten minutes, letting users enjoy cooling relief in no time. It's reported that the product has long been out of stock due to overwhelming demand, and prices have been driven up significantly on second-hand platforms. In fact, Germans have even set up a website to track restock availability in real time, just to find out where nearby supplies are being replenished.

According to official information from Midea Group, the Midea PortaSplit portable split-type air conditioner has seen explosive sales, with B2B shipments in the European market exceeding 200,000 units this year — double that of last year. At present, the penetration rate of the European air conditioner market is still far lower than that of China. With extreme heatwaves occurring more frequently, demand has surged rapidly. This presents a huge opportunity not just for Midea, but for other Chinese home appliance companies as well.

However, air conditioners are ultimately limited to fixed indoor settings, while portable cooling items are also wildly popular overseas. When it comes to portable fans, the Shenzhen-based brand JisuLife is a name that can't be ignored. With the niche category of portable fans, the company has achieved annual revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan and has ranked first in global USB mini-fan sales for many consecutive years.

Traditional portable fans are priced at around a dozen yuan, with rough workmanship and short battery life. But JisuLife took a completely different approach — setting higher price points while consistently innovating. For example, they've pushed airflow and battery life to the extreme, and launched fans in various form factors to suit different usage scenarios.

In short, whether it's cooling rings, portable fans, or air conditioners that have gone viral, this wave of cooling-product frenzy reveals a clear trend: the increasing frequency of extreme weather events around the world is creating new consumer necessities, and the responsiveness of China's supply chain, combined with its product innovation capabilities, happens to align perfectly with this demand.

It's foreseeable that as demand continues to expand, what will truly determine who comes out on top is the ability to deeply understand the real pain points of overseas markets — and the capability to translate those insights into tangible products.

In early May this year, Doubao officially announced it would launch a paid version. As soon as the news broke, some netizens threatened to uninstall the app.

Now it seems these were not just empty words. Data from third-party platforms show that Doubao's monthly active users declined in May 2026, dropping by approximately 6.1 million, a month-over-month decrease of about 1.81%. User attrition has already become visible.

The reason is not hard to understand—users have grown accustomed to using free AI tools, and there are still multiple free AI alternatives available on the market, leading to low willingness to pay. For Doubao, once it starts charging, it inevitably faces backlash from users.

Nevertheless, Doubao still took the plunge without hesitation. As of today, Doubao has officially begun charging. Why, despite public pressure and the risks of uncertainty, does Doubao insist on charging?

1. Doubao Officially Launches Paid Professional Edition, Up to 500 RMB/Month

Looking at the global market, the trend toward charging for AI tools is clear. International players like GPT and Claude have already proven their consumer subscription models, validating the feasibility of this business model.

In contrast, in the domestic market, AI players are not unwilling to commercialize. However, the industry has previously relied on free offerings to capture users and subsidies to refine models, never finding the right window for monetization.

Now, Doubao, as China's largest AI application by user base, has taken the first step into paid services, becoming the industry's "pathfinder." The substantial controversy it faces in the short term is perfectly normal during this industry transition phase.

Doubao's charging model is not an "all-or-nothing" approach but includes both a free version and a paid professional edition.

Generally speaking, the free version of Doubao can handle daily Q&A, research, basic copywriting, translation, and other simple needs—sufficient for regular students, casual users, and light office workers.

The paid professional edition offers upgraded features, primarily targeting more complex application scenarios such as high-quality video generation and product design, making creation and office work smoother and more efficient.

So how is the professional edition priced? Official information shows a three-tier pricing structure:

• Standard Plan: 68 RMB/month for auto-renewal. Includes all benefits of the free version, access to the 2.1 Pro model, and 5x the quotas for features like Office Task Mode and Expert Mode compared to the free version.
• Enhanced Plan: 200 RMB/month for auto-renewal. Offers 4x the quotas of the Standard Plan.
• Premium Plan: 500 RMB/month for auto-renewal. Offers 10x the quotas of the Standard Plan.

It is worth mentioning that Doubao offers a 6-month student promotion for current university students. Student users not only enjoy more free service quotas but also receive corresponding exclusive discounts.

In fact, compared to many overseas AI tools that already charge fees, Doubao's pricing is mid-range. For example: GPT's Go version is $8/month (about 54 RMB), Plus is $20/month (about 135 RMB), and Pro is $100/month (about 677 RMB). Meanwhile, domestic competitor Kimi offers: Entry at 49 RMB/month, Efficiency at 99 RMB/month, Professional at 199 RMB/month, and Premium at 699 RMB/month.

The point of contention, however, is that many users question whether Doubao has the capability to match its paid model.

At this stage, Doubao's productivity remains controversial. Recently, Doubao became an internet meme known as "Doubao-type personality" due to issues like weak logical responses and perfunctory answers. The meme features a behavior pattern of "brushing off small matters, apologizing quickly when wrong, having a good attitude but doing it again next time"—accurately reflecting the pain points users experience when using Doubao.

In truth, capability gaps and experience flaws are common industry issues during the iterative upgrade process of any AI software. Doubao is still in its growth and improvement phase, so having shortcomings is normal.

But since it has chosen to launch a paid model, to quell user resistance and make people willing to pay, Doubao must focus on polishing product features and optimizing the entire user experience, delivering tangible productivity upgrades that match the paid value.

Admittedly, launching a paid model at this stage will certainly embroil Doubao in public controversy. But even if the costs are clear, this commercialization push is something Doubao must pursue.

According to 36Kr, after the Spring Festival in 2026, Doubao's DAU surpassed 200 million. This means 200 million users open Doubao every day, and every conversation consumes computing power. This massive user scale brings even higher computing costs.

Tan Dai, President of Volcano Engine, stated that as of June 2026, Doubao's large language model processes 180 trillion daily token calls, a more than 1,500-fold increase since launch and over 10-fold growth in the past year. This exponential growth in token calls requires substantial financial backing.

The free model simply cannot sustain 200 million daily active users. According to LatePost, Doubao's daily computing power costs may reach tens of millions of RMB, while daily revenue is less than one million RMB, leaving a gap that is difficult to bridge. To continue operating and iterating its models long-term, Doubao must open new revenue streams—and the paid model is the most direct solution for now.

Moreover, Doubao's move to paid services is not just for short-term profitability but also to segment users and unlock long-term commercial value.

User needs have shifted from initial curiosity to dependency. Some power users have long been using high-compute features, and these productivity needs align perfectly with the value-added services of Doubao's professional edition, forming a natural foundation for paid conversion.

Through a paid threshold, Doubao can precisely identify high-value users—those willing to pay for professional features and consuming significant compute resources—from its 200 million DAUs. Subsequently, it can optimize products and launch tailored plans to amplify user commercial value and achieve stable revenue.

Of course, building this ideal commercial loop is not easy. Doubao must not only continuously iterate its models and strengthen core productivity to truly help users solve problems, but it must also build its own irreplaceability and product moat to retain paying users.

2. Doubao Continues to Drive Commercialization

The development of AI tools is moving from burning cash to acquire users toward a new phase of value realization. Commercialization is no longer a choice but a necessity. Doubao, with 200 million daily active users, is undoubtedly making more attempts on this path.

In "AI + E-commerce," Doubao had already integrated with Douyin Shopping at the base level early on, allowing it to recommend products to users during conversations as an initial test of AI-guided shopping.

In April this year, Doubao launched a "Let Doubao Choose for You" feature on its navigation bar. Leveraging its large model, it analyzes user budgets, usage scenarios, functional preferences, and more, automatically filters products, and provides personalized purchase recommendations.

During the 618 shopping festival, the shopping feature was further upgraded to "Ask Doubao Before Buying," establishing it as a dedicated shopping decision-making zone fully integrated with Douyin Mall.

Users can access product inquiries, smart price comparisons, coupon collection, selection, and closed-loop payment directly within the chat interface—all without redirection, truly enabling "chat-to-shop."

In terms of lifestyle services, Doubao recently began gray-box testing of ride-hailing. Industry insiders revealed that Doubao has started gray-box testing a "One-click Ride" feature in Beijing and Hangzhou, with Cao Cao Mobility providing the transportation support. Currently, it is only open to some users.

This means users no longer need to open a separate ride-hailing app; they can confirm pricing and itinerary directly in the Doubao chat window and complete the order—condensing the entire travel operation within the AI conversation interface.

From AI-powered smart shopping and tiered subscription payments to gray-box testing of one-click ride-hailing, Doubao continues to deepen its presence in daily life and practical scenarios, building a one-stop service gateway within ByteDance's own ecosystem.

Unlike most AI products on the market that remain limited to text Q&A and content generation, Doubao integrates consumption, office work, and travel scenarios into a one-stop closed-loop service. This effectively locks in user habits, improving retention and engagement.

However, Tongyi Qianwen has also integrated Taobao shopping and Amap ride-hailing, leveraging the Alibaba ecosystem to form a complete service system.

In the short term, the free Qianwen may divert some ordinary users who prioritize zero-cost usage, putting pressure on Doubao's user base under its paid model.

But from a long-term perspective, as long as Doubao continues to refine its model capabilities and build differentiated service barriers, it can remain steadily competitive in the arena.

According to sources, Xiaohongshu plans to formally submit a confidential IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by the end of this month (June). The company is currently working with advisory firms to advance the preparatory work.

Xiaohongshu was founded by Mao WenChao and Qu Fang in Shanghai in 2013. Its investors include Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group, HSG, Hillhouse Investment, and GSR Ventures. As the business grows, Xiaohongshu's valuation surged to $31 billion in secondary market trading in September 2025. The company also forecast to shareholders that its full-year profit for 2025 would reach approximately $3 billion, representing a 200% increase from the previous year, with a price-to-earnings ratio of about 10 times.

As of press time, Xiaohongshu has not responded to requests for comment on this matter.

Over the past few years, Xiaohongshu's valuation has continued to rise against market trends. In July 2024, the company was valued at $17 billion during a secondary sale of old shares. In January 2025, that figure increased to $20 billion in another secondary transaction. By June 2025, a portfolio document from GSR Ventures showed that as of the end of June, Xiaohongshu's valuation had reached $31 billion (approximately RMB 220 billion). Separately, sources say that a major US dollar fund quietly sold part of its stake in Xiaohongshu at a valuation of $50 billion (approximately RMB 350 billion) in late 2025.

Notably, Xiaohongshu has been rumored to go public multiple times before. In 2021, reports suggested the company was considering a US listing to raise approximately $500 million to $1 billion, but the plan was shelved due to a shift in the regulatory environment.

According to relevant data, as of now, Xiaohongshu's daily active users (DAU) have surpassed 170 million, monthly active users (MAU) have exceeded 400 million, and daily searches reach as high as 800 million. This year, the company also secured broadcasting rights for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico, in an attempt to expand its sports content, attract male user growth, and push toward 200 million DAU.

I. Sweet Success Overseas

As is well known, Americans have a strong sweet tooth, consuming three times as much sugar per capita as China. In this vast candy market, a Chinese company has successfully seized the opportunity, achieving an annual revenue of over 100 million yuan.

This company is Amosi Food (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Amosi). Data shows that in 2025, Amosi achieved an annual revenue of 2.782 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 77.08%; its annual net profit reached 600 million yuan, 402 million yuan higher than the previous year.

These results would be impressive even in many technology industries, and Amosi has thereby become the largest gummy candy company in China and the fifth largest globally. At the end of April this year, the company officially submitted an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, intending to list its shares. As of now, the Stock Exchange has not yet issued a hearing notice.

The entrepreneurial story of Amosi is a classic example of a domestic brand making a successful counterattack.

In 2004, Ma Enduo, a native of Hunan Province, founded Jinduoduo Food in Bao'an District, Shenzhen, which was the predecessor of Amosi. In its early days, the company primarily focused on OEM manufacturing for overseas candy brands, gradually accumulating industry experience and resources. When the global financial crisis hit in 2008, the OEM business came under pressure, forcing the company to seek new directions.

While most food companies prefer to first consolidate their position in the domestic market, which they understand better, Jinduoduo did the opposite — it launched its own brand, Amosi (AMOS), into the fiercely competitive US candy market.

However, it was precisely in this "red ocean" dominated by industry giants like Mars, Mondelez, and Hershey that Amosi managed to carve out a path to success. Financial reports show that in 2025, Amosi generated over 1.46 billion yuan in revenue from North America, accounting for 52.7% of its total revenue — an increase of about 20 percentage points compared to 2023.

II. Hitting a Need

While the global candy market is slowly expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 3.26%, Amosi has achieved a growth rate more than ten times the industry average.

This remarkable growth is driven, on the one hand, by China's mature and efficient candy supply chain system, and on the other hand, by Amosi's keen insight into market consumption trends.

While many candy manufacturers are still competing on basic dimensions such as sugar content, ingredients, and packaging, Amosi has broken away from traditional industry thinking, launching a series of fun and creative candies, such as 4D building block gummies, peelable gummies, and bone-conduction music lollipops. These products precisely target the needs of young people for stress relief, social media check-ins, and sharing. The music lollipops, in particular, have generated a massive amount of user-generated content on social media.

As consumption upgrades, young people no longer focus solely on price and functionality when choosing products; they increasingly seek emotional value and social attributes. If a product can be remembered and shared because of a certain feature, it easily creates a viral effect, opening up new growth opportunities for the brand.

Fairness should not be discounted.

Order the same pineapple online — in a first-tier city you receive a golden, juicy one, but in your rural hometown it arrives green, bitter, and blackened.

Buy a down jacket for elderly relatives: in a big city, you get a thick, puffy, well-made coat; in a small county, it's so thin it's almost see-through.

Sellers will make excuses, saying it's just "batch differences."

Little do people know that behind all this lies a huge gray industrial chain.

Recently, the topic "AB goods in e-commerce" went viral on social media. So-called AB goods refer to sellers shipping two different qualities of products under the same listing and at the same price. To first-tier cities, they send high-quality "A goods" with proper materials. To counties and villages, they send inferior "B goods" with corners cut. The price is the same, but the quality is worlds apart.

The comment sections exploded. Someone posted a comparison of identical jackets bought with a friend in another city — one with thick fabric and neat stitching, the other thin as tissue with loose threads everywhere. Someone complained that the same model of appliance they bought for their elderly parents in their hometown was so crudely made it looked like a different brand. Another person discovered that the food products they regularly order for themselves come in a version for their hometown that is a third smaller in portion.

Same store, same price but different quality — this is not a coincidence; it's a deliberate seller strategy. When consumers try to assert their rights, they are often brushed off with excuses like "different batches" or "different warehouses." Online shopping has turned into a blind box gamble. Some users have been forced to come up with workarounds: for expensive items, first enter an address in a big city, then change it to the real address after the order is shipped.

It's utterly absurd that buyers have to play cat-and-mouse with sellers. After multiple parties launched investigations, the mechanism behind this deceptive scheme has been completely exposed.

Step one: Multi-warehouse stocking. Sellers store premium and defective products separately across different warehouses. "A goods" go to good warehouses, "B goods" to bad ones.

Step two: Systematic order filtering. The system profiles buyers based on shipping address, account level, spending habits, return history, and how actively they defend their rights.

Step three: Precise allocation. Buyers in first-tier cities, core business districts, and high-consumption areas are labeled as "highly sensitive, rights-asserting users" — they receive "A goods." Buyers in lower-tier cities, counties, and remote rural areas are labeled as "less sensitive, less rights-asserting users" — they are flooded with "B goods."

A staff member from the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission pointed out that some sellers profile consumers based on shipping address, account level, spending habits, and willingness to assert their rights. This essentially infringes on consumers' right to information and their right to fair trade.

The entire process happens without the consumer's knowledge. You see the same product page, open the same description, pay the same price — yet you are treated differently at shipment. At its core, this is a premeditated, systematic, streamlined practice of differential shipping based on perceived consumer rights awareness. Simply put, it's "serving people according to their perceived status."

What's even more chilling is that behind this operation lies a complete gray industry chain.

An industry insider revealed a detail: sellers use "A goods" to pass platform entry requirements and obtain certifications — such as special cosmetic licenses or quality inspection reports — but when actually shipping, they send "B goods" made in small, unregulated workshops. When market regulators come to inspect, the sellers present the legitimately produced goods, making it impossible for inspectors to find any problem.

This scheme of switching between genuine and fake runs on deception from start to finish. The small workshops producing "B goods" have no brand, no retail presence — they exist solely to supply e-commerce sellers. Their production principle is "save wherever possible": cheap raw materials, simplified processes, skipping quality control, driving costs down to one-third of the genuine product or even lower. The seller buys this inventory, slaps on genuine brand labels, mixes it into the legitimate inventory, stores it separately in different warehouses, locks onto target users — the whole process runs like a well-oiled machine.

In even more extreme cases, there's no need for separate production lines. An old industry trick has been exposed before: the same brand may sell one version of a product in physical retail stores and a different version online — especially through low-price promotions. They may look the same, but the design, materials, and even production lines can differ.

In recent years, with the rise of short videos and livestreaming, a new AB good variant has emerged — "special livestream editions." The product the host shows on camera is visibly different from what finally arrives at the consumer's door, in terms of fabric, workmanship, and details. For consumers, the end result is the same: the product doesn't match what was advertised. But tracing the source is like playing whack-a-mole — there are too many sources, and none can be fully eradicated.

So here's the question: why do sellers dare to do this? Aren't they afraid of massive negative reviews and returns?

Because they're betting that you won't be able to assert your rights. Consumers in big cities have strong rights awareness, easy returns — couriers pick up from home, everything is settled in minutes. Sellers don't dare to fool them, so they send "A goods." What about consumers in counties and villages? Even just picking up a package might require traveling several kilometers. Discovering that the product is wrong, they have to pack it themselves, find a drop-off point, fill out forms. The return shipping cost might even be higher than the product itself. After all that hassle, it's easier to just take the loss.

Platforms are also "turning a blind eye." The volume of "B goods" brings platforms commission fees and advertising revenue, so they tacitly allow sellers to "profile" users and treat them differently. Some platforms even offer "audience segmentation" features, allowing sellers to choose different shipping strategies based on tags like region, spending power, and return rate. These tools were intended to help sellers with precise marketing and cost savings, but they inadvertently fuel this practice of "differential shipping."

Sellers are guaranteed winners, becoming the biggest beneficiaries. Orders to first-tier cities get "A goods," ensuring high ratings and repeat purchases. Orders to lower-tier markets get "B goods," saving about half the cost. Even if a few buyers notice something wrong and demand refunds, the total refund amount is far less than the overall cost savings.

Legal experts have clearly stated that sending "B goods" constitutes an unauthorized substitution of the contracted item. Sellers are legally obligated to accept returns, provide replacements, and compensate for losses. If this qualifies as consumer fraud, consumers have the right to demand triple the purchase price in compensation.

But the problem is that the vast majority of consumers have no idea they received "B goods." Without comparison, the problem is invisible. That same pineapple: golden and juicy in big cities, green and bitter in villages — but if you only received the green, bitter one, you'd just think, "This batch wasn't very good" — never suspecting that the seller was playing the AB goods game. Information asymmetry is the AB goods scheme's greatest shield.

In a commentary, the Economic Daily hit the nail on the head, stating that this behavior seriously violates consumers' right to fair trade. So-called AB goods are essentially unfair transactions built on information asymmetry and geographic discrimination. This not only harms consumers but also undermines the principle of fair market competition. Honest sellers who focus on quality end up losing out. Ultimately, it leads to "bad money driving out good," shaking the very foundations of standardization and healthy development in the e-commerce industry.

The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission went further, posing a "soul-searching question": How can sellers have two faces?

They noted that the e-commerce industry still hasn't moved beyond the distorted development model of "price wars," forcing sellers to cut quality and features to make up for shrinking profits. Some e-commerce platforms have also failed to fully fulfill their responsibilities — they haven't proactively detected or effectively addressed the AB goods phenomenon, objectively allowing the problem to fester.

The chaos of AB goods between cities and villages is essentially the offspring of three factors: the difficulty consumers face in asserting their rights, intensifying market competition (driving a race to the bottom), and algorithmic encouragement from platforms.

According to statistics from the China Consumer Association, in 2025, consumer protection organizations across the country received a total of 2.016 million complaints, a year-on-year increase of 14.45%. By nature of complaints: after-sales service issues accounted for 27.68%, quality issues for 19.51%, and false advertising for 7.88%. Rural consumers, especially the elderly, lack understanding of rights protection procedures. The processes of taking photos as evidence, filing complaints, and processing returns are too complex and troublesome, so they often give up, feeling it's "too much hassle." Moreover, most AB goods differ only in raw materials, sourcing, and production nuances — it's difficult to identify the discrepancy by eye or touch alone, which allows unscrupulous sellers to remain complacent.

An Xinhuanet commentary stated bluntly: sellers shipping AB goods based on delivery address appears on the surface to be a logistics and warehouse allocation issue, but in reality, it's disrespect toward consumers, a serious violation of their rights, and a disruption of the fair order of market transactions.

This short-sighted behavior — seemingly increasing profits by passing off inferior goods as high-quality — will only cause sellers to lose consumer trust in the long run. They are shooting themselves in the foot. Establishing a transparent, fair, and traceable transaction mechanism is a goal that e-commerce platforms must achieve.

In fact, as early as April 10 of this year, the "Internet Platform Price Behavior Rules" took effect, explicitly prohibiting differentiated pricing and differentiated shipping based on consumer profiles. The chaos of AB goods in e-commerce has been included as a priority area for regulation.

But it takes time for laws and regulations to produce actual results. During this transitional window, every order shipped "according to perceived status" continues to severely undermine consumer trust in the entire e-commerce ecosystem.

Trust takes ten years to build and one day to destroy.

If one consumer discovers they've been treated unequally, they may never buy from that store or that platform again. If ten consumers realize they've been cheated, they can come together around a shared topic and send it trending. From then on, more and more people will shop online while suspecting that what they're getting is "B goods" — consumers have already lost trust and a sense of security in online shopping, and this will leave the deepest wound on the entire e-commerce industry.

Lower-tier markets cannot become markets for defective goods. E-commerce can go down to lower-tier markets, but product quality must never sink. Ordinary people making purchases online should not be forced to become authenticators, investigators, and rights protection experts. Only when platforms and regulators take one step forward will consumers feel a little less guarded and a little more at ease.

Trending topics come and go, but the problem won't disappear on its own. We must uphold the transaction principle of "same price, same quality" and strictly punish discriminatory business practices that "serve people according to their perceived status." This trending moment should not just blow over.

Fairness should not be discounted.

In the past, users were keen to camp out in livestream rooms to shop, and livestream e-commerce once became the core revenue pillar of major platforms. But nowadays, growth in livestream e-commerce has slowed, and the time users spend in livestream rooms is also declining.

At the same time, short dramas — with their tight pacing, addictive plots, and strong immersive feel — have attracted a huge number of users. According to the latest report from QuestMobile, the number of short drama users in China has reached 718 million, with the average user watching over two hours per day.

These addictive short dramas not only capture users' attention and strengthen their loyalty, but also unlock enormous commercial monetization potential. DataEye Research Institute estimates that by 2026, the market size for micro‑short dramas and comic dramas in China will conservatively exceed 120 billion yuan.

With the prospects of this hundred‑billion‑level blue‑ocean market clearly bright, short dramas are becoming the next battlefield for Douyin and Kuaishou as they compete for new growth drivers. To seize this new wave of opportunities, both platforms have recently invested heavily — putting up over 10 billion yuan in funds and resources — to aggressively double down on the short drama track.

1. Douyin supports live‑action short dramas with over 1.5 billion yuan

Recently, the Douyin Group Short Drama Copyright Center held its first Short Drama Industry Conference. At the conference, Hua Yuesheng, the relevant director, clearly stated:

"In 2026, the guaranteed support budget for live‑action short dramas will exceed 1.5 billion yuan, and the average guaranteed amount per drama will increase by about 60% compared with last year."

Source: Douyin

Meanwhile, Sui Yifei, head of operations for Hongguo Short Dramas, revealed that in 2026, Hongguo will also provide 30 billion in traffic incentives and tens of millions in promotion investment to support quality works.

It is worth noting that in April, at the 3rd China Online Audiovisual Conference 2026, Douyin Group had just announced a special fund of 500 million yuan to support live‑action short drama content and in‑depth development of realistic themes.

Within just these two months, Douyin has continued to increase its financial investment in short dramas, while placing special emphasis on "live‑action short dramas" and "quality works."

This move by Douyin should have reassured many short drama actors. That's because the recent prevalence of AI‑generated short dramas had made many actors worry that they would be replaced by AI, leaving them with "no roles to play" and "no way to make a living."

But now, Douyin has used real money to show its stance — and there are multiple reasons for this.

There is no denying that the AI wave has pressed the "fast‑forward button" for the short drama industry, especially by dramatically boosting content production efficiency. Data shows that in the first quarter of 2026, about 128,000 micro‑short dramas were launched across the industry, of which approximately 122,000 were AI‑generated — meaning AI accounted for over 95%.

This share is astonishing. At first glance, AI short dramas seem to have become the absolute mainstream in the industry. But is that really the case? Let's look at another set of data: during the 2026 Spring Festival holiday, the total number of views for live‑action micro‑short dramas was 25 times that of AI‑generated dramas in the same period.

The stark contrast between these two data sets speaks volumes: AI short dramas win on production capacity, but live‑action short dramas win people's hearts. As Le Li, editor‑in‑chief of Hongguo Short Dramas, put it, the value of live‑action short dramas lies in their ability to stay rooted in life and resonate emotionally with audiences. The genuine feelings they convey are the core that enables the industry to move forward steadily.

Furthermore, AI short dramas generally face problems of homogenization and formulaic plots, with some even lacking any bottom line. For example, an AI short drama titled "Transmigration and Counterattack: A Two‑Way Journey" featured the absurd premise of a female lead giving birth to 999 children within eight hours. The drama was widely condemned across the internet and was eventually taken down by regulators.

Source: Douyin

Such sensational content challenges public order and good morals, triggers user aversion, and ultimately damages the platform's content ecosystem — it should not exist at all.

AI short dramas have the advantage in quantity, but their quality lags behind. Live‑action short dramas, though fewer in number, are more likely to become high‑quality works and have secured a market foothold through their superior quality. A series of data released at the conference also confirmed the vigorous development of live‑action short dramas.

Statistics show that the total time spent watching live‑action short dramas nearly tripled within one year. More than 1,100 live‑action short dramas have exceeded 1 billion views across all platforms. The number of content categories expanded from 44 last year to 65, and the share of viewing time for series (sequel‑type dramas) rose from 6% to 15%.

Undoubtedly, these high‑quality live‑action short dramas have effectively increased user dwell time and loyalty, while also laying the groundwork for subsequent monetization. Within the Douyin and Hongguo Short Dramas ecosystem, this monetization system has already proven successful, forming a mature model of "advertising as the foundation, e‑commerce for explosive growth, and revenue sharing for a stable ecosystem."

Hongguo Short Dramas uses a "free viewing + ad‑based unlocking" model, covering opening splash ads, mid‑roll ads, and incentivized video ads. Relevant data shows that advertising revenue in 2025 was about 20 billion yuan.

At the same time, Hongguo Short Dramas has set up its own independent e‑commerce department and integrated with Douyin's e‑commerce supply chain. When users watch short dramas, the playback page uses AI to recognize products and displays a "find similar" button, enabling them to shop while watching.

In essence, retaining attention means retaining every commercial possibility. Douyin is precisely targeting and deepening its efforts in high‑quality live‑action short dramas to create a unique content differentiation barrier.

By continuously attracting users to stop and immerse themselves in watching high‑quality content, Douyin firmly holds onto attention resources, building a solid foundation for subsequent diversified commercial monetization.

2. Kuaishou invests more than 2 billion yuan of resources to double down on short dramas

While Douyin is spending heavily on short dramas, Kuaishou, also a content platform, has revealed its own bet.

Recently, the 2026 Kuaishou Magnet Engine Content Consumption Business Conference was held in Changsha. At the conference, Kong Hui, a relevant director, disclosed that in 2026, Kuaishou plans to invest 800 million yuan to explore diversified revenue‑sharing models, another 200 million yuan in cash to incubate premium drama series, and 1 billion in exclusive traffic to incentivize high‑quality short drama content.

It is not hard to see that Kuaishou is also focusing on quality short dramas. However, some might wonder why Kuaishou is putting most of its funds into diversified revenue‑sharing models.

Essentially, this is to increase both supply quantity and quality. The more revenue sharing, the more content — and the better the content. Kuaishou uses "guaranteed income" to stabilize creators and seek long‑term cooperation. At the same time, supported by a steady cash flow, creators can focus on their craft, daring to write, film, innovate, and consistently produce high‑quality content, thereby capturing users' attention.

Kuaishou's bold investment is thanks to the outstanding results it has already achieved in short dramas.

Data shows that as of April 2026, the average daily exposure of Kuaishou's short drama content reached 129 million, and users spent an average of 29 minutes per day watching short dramas. Over the past year, the supply of short dramas on Kuaishou grew eight‑fold, the number of advertising customers increased 2.6‑fold, and ad spend on comic dramas grew nearly 20‑fold in the past six months.

It is worth noting that Kuaishou specifically highlighted the advertising contribution of comic dramas. At the same time, the conference clearly stated that Kuaishou aims to empower the short drama content industry with AI, building a positive cycle where "creation generates income, users are engaged, and monetization becomes more stable."

Unlike Douyin, which this time is going all in on live‑action short dramas, Kuaishou — while also deeply cultivating the high‑quality live‑action short drama track — is simultaneously vigorously supporting the growth of AI comic dramas. With a dual‑engine model of strengthening the foundation with live‑action dramas and opening up a new arena with AI comic dramas, Kuaishou demonstrates a long‑term vision and huge growth ambitions.

There is no denying that the industry is currently plagued by various AI short drama excesses, with crude, low‑quality content emerging endlessly. However, AI comic dramas are fundamentally different from ordinary live‑action short dramas: they are presented in an animated visual form, which inherently imposes higher requirements on content generation technology, visual quality, and narrative coherence. And Kuaishou, with its self‑developed Kling AI model as a core asset, enjoys unique technological advantages.

High‑quality AI comic dramas indeed bring new growth to Kuaishou. Statistics show that the overlap rate between paying users of Kuaishou's comic dramas and paying users of its live‑action short dramas is 38%, indicating extremely high user expansion value and commercial growth potential.

Whether live‑action or AI comic dramas, quality is essential for capturing users' attention. Good content not only retains users but also generates commercial returns. Kuaishou primarily monetizes its short dramas through three channels: brand customization, integration with livestreams, and collaboration with external e‑commerce platforms.

Source: Kuaishou

Facing the hundred‑billion‑level blue‑ocean track of short dramas, although Douyin and Kuaishou have slightly different focuses in their development, both are making heavy investments and concentrating on premium short dramas.

This strategy is driven, on the one hand, by the need to keep pace with industry regulation. In 2026, the National Radio and Television Administration is promoting a plan for the creation and dissemination of high‑quality micro‑short dramas, setting a clear goal of producing 1,000 premium short dramas throughout the year, while also cracking down hard on vulgar, sensational, rule‑bending, and falsely advertised content. Since the beginning of this year, Douyin and Kuaishou have already taken down many non‑compliant short dramas.

On the other hand, it is the inevitable direction of the industry's development. The short drama market has long left behind the phase of crude, unbridled growth and has officially entered the deep waters of quality improvement, efficiency enhancement, and survival of the fittest. The old models that relied on eye‑grabbing sensationalism, formulaic plots, and gimmicks no longer work. Public tastes continue to evolve, and the demand for high‑quality content is stronger than ever.

The market has already changed. Platforms and industry participants must move with the times, adhering to a strategy of premium, high‑quality content creation in order to achieve long‑term, stable development.