Summary of Key Points
DouBao, the AI assistant under ByteDance, has officially launched three professional subscription services (with monthly fees of 68/200/500 yuan respectively), which have drawn complaints from users stating that the prices are too high and that they will uninstall the app if they have to pay. However, beyond these emotions, DouBao's decision to charge fees is out of necessity: on one hand, it incurs substantial computational costs due to an average daily of 180 trillion token calls (resulting in costs of hundreds of millions of yuan per day), and advertising revenue generation is not a viable option; on the other hand, the industry has shifted from a phase of competing for users to one of focusing on generating revenue for survival. With DouBao's user growth having peaked, it is necessary to have its premium users share the costs. Nevertheless, DouBao faces challenges such as a mismatch between pricing and value, an unsuitable user base, and concerns regarding the devaluation of the free version's features. These issues also reflect the broader difficulties that the domestic AI industry is experiencing in transitioning from a period of rapid expansion to one of targeted revenue generation.
1. Excessive Computational Costs Force DouBao to Charge Fees
The cost structure of AI products is completely different from that of mobile internet services like WeChat and TikTok: the more users WeChat has, the lower the server costs per user, approaching zero marginal costs; in contrast, AI requires GPU power for every conversation and content generation. The more active the users and the more complex the demands, the higher the costs—there is no scale effect, only a "negative scale effect."
DouBao has the largest number of C-side (consumer) AI users in China, with 345 million monthly active users and an average daily token usage of 180 trillion (a 1500-fold increase over two years). Conservatively estimated, the daily cost is at least 130 million yuan, amounting to several billion yuan annually. Moreover, it is difficult to incorporate advertising into AI products; for example, when users use DouBao to create reports or PPTs, inserting ads would be considered disruptive, so despite having TikTok as a backing, DouBao cannot generate significant ad revenue (with daily income below one million yuan).
In the past two years, DouBao offered a free service to gain a foothold in the AI market. However, now that user growth has reached its ceiling (with 600 million generative AI users in China and DouBao accounting for more than half of them), costs continue to rise, even though ByteDance's net profit has decreased by 70%. As a result, it has to rely on paid users to share the expenses.
2. Pricing Seems Reasonable but Users Feel It's Not Worth It
DouBao's pricing tiers (68/200/500 yuan per month) are not excessively expensive when compared to international alternatives like ChatGPT Plus (around 140 yuan) and domestic competitors like Kimi (49 yuan for the basic tier). However, users criticize the lack of value for the money:
- Lack of Differentiation in Features: The paid services, such as PPT generation and data analysis, are also available with other models (like Kimi), and the main benefit is merely an increased number of token calls, lacking any unique selling points.
- High Costs for Video Generation: DouBao's text-to-video model, Seedance, charges hundreds of yuan to generate 100 seconds of video. For a monthly subscription of 200 yuan, users would spend half of their budget on video generation, limiting the usefulness of the service—thus, the membership benefits are more like limited access, leading to disappointment among users.
- Opaque Measurement: Users pay a monthly fee but do not know how many tokens are required to generate a PPT. The platform controls the pricing and can adjust the consumption rate at any time, making it similar to buying from a "blind box."
3. User Base That Fails to Appeal to Both Ends
DouBao's user base has a critical issue:
- Ineffective for Low-End Users: Among the 345 million monthly active users, students and middle-aged to elderly people primarily use DouBao for chatting and searching for information, and they do not need the paid productivity features.
- Unattractive to High-End Users: Professionals and creators who require frequent office tasks find that DouBao's capabilities are inferior to those of platforms like ChatGPT or specialized models (such as Kimi, which support full Office format processing and multi-tasking).
- Low Willingness to Pay: Domestic users are accustomed to free internet services. A Citibank survey shows that 45% of users are willing to pay, but the average acceptable price is only 48.3 yuan per month, which is 30% lower than DouBao's starting fee.
This structure makes it difficult to convert users to paid subscriptions from the outset.
4. Differentiation in the AI Industry: General Models Cut Prices, High-End Models Charge Premiums
DouBao's pricing strategy is not isolated; the domestic AI industry has divided into two camps:
- General Models Engage in Price Wars: General models like DeepSeek and Xiaomi MiMo have significantly reduced their prices (by up to 99%) to attract small developers and ordinary users by optimizing their technology.
- High-End Models Charge Premiums: High-end models from companies like Zhipu and Tencent Cloud have increased their prices (by 60%) because enterprise customers and professional developers are less sensitive to price and are willing to pay for enhanced capabilities.
DouBao's tiered pricing is an attempt at targeting the "high-end" segment of the C-side market, offering free basic functions while charging for more advanced office and computational-intensive services. Global manufacturers also follow different approaches: OpenAI relies on its large base of free users to generate revenue from paid subscriptions, while Anthropic charges from day one (with each user contributing 211 dollars per month), and Google integrates AI into cloud services to earn from businesses.
5. C-Side Pricing is Just a Pilot; B-Side Represents the Real Profit Potential
ByteDance does not expect immediate profitability from C-side subscriptions—indeed, it does not even set targets for payment penetration rates in 2026. DouBao's fee collection is more about learning and improvement:
- Enhancing Agent Capabilities: The paid "office task mode" (which allows users to control computers, utilize skills, and break down tasks) is crucial for evolving AI from a chat tool into a productivity assistant, which can later benefit the B-side market.
- The B-Side is the Real Focus: ByteDance's火山引擎 (Volcanic Engine) cloud service provides APIs for large models, serving 1.1 million enterprises, with over 200 companies using more than one trillion tokens annually in industries such as manufacturing and finance. Enterprises are willing to pay for AI solutions that can save them money and increase efficiency, representing the core of large model commercialization.
The industry is still in its early stages, so short-term gains and losses are not significant, but targeted revenue generation is an inevitable path forward.
Conclusion
DouBao's decision to charge fees is not about exploiting users but a necessary step for the AI industry to move from a phase of burning money to attract users to one of rational revenue generation. To make users pay, it must address the issue of value alignment—either by offering exclusive features or by clearly demonstrating the efficiency improvements that the service provides. Otherwise, complaints will continue. For the industry as a whole, stable revenue from the B-side market is key to the sustainable development of AI.