ByteDance’s US$4b projected AI revenue tops China as it restructures office tool Lark

ByteDance, the parent company behind TikTok and Douyin, has restructured its office tool Lark to prioritize artificial intelligence (AI) for corporate clients, with AI revenue projected to reach US$4 billion annually, according to sources. The company integrated Lark's office product team into the Doubao AI chatbot team, led by Zhao Qi, while David Xie Xin, the former Lark CEO, reported directly to Zhao.

Lark's sales, marketing, and customer service departments merged with Volcano Engine, creating a new department for sales and customer service of model-as-a-service and software-as-a-service offerings. Development and infrastructure teams from Lark were also merged into Flow, an AI-focused division. Despite the internal restructuring, ByteDance aims to enhance AI product competitiveness and customer service capabilities.

ByteDance's AI revenue, primarily from large language models, surpassed US$4 billion this month, the highest among Chinese AI rivals. Zhipu recorded US$1 billion in ARR in July, DeepSeek reached US$500 million, and Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 model generated US$300 million in ARR in June. Alibaba Group Holding projects AI ARR to exceed 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in Q2 and triple by year-end.

While ByteDance's AI efforts, including optional Doubao chatbot subscriptions, led to a 6.1 million monthly active user drop, Doubao remains China's most popular AI app with 330 million users.