Internet giant ByteDance is trying to replicate the "breakthrough" myth of WeChat and Alipay. According to an exclusive report by LatePost, ByteDance's Huo Yan Engine has officially confirmed becoming the exclusive AI cloud partner for the 2026 China Central Television (CCTV) Spring Festival Gala. Its intelligent assistant "Doubao" will also participate deeply, launching various AI interactive features.
As a national super IP, the Spring Festival Gala has always been a key battlefield for top internet products to achieve explosive growth. Looking back to 2015, WeChat Pay achieved 200 million bank card bindings through the "shake" red envelope feature, laying the foundation for its payment dominance; in 2016, Alipay succeeded with the "collecting five blessings" campaign. Now, ByteDance is trying to use this peak traffic to achieve a leap in its AI strategy.
According to a strategic map disclosed by the Financial Times, ByteDance aims to take the global leadership in the AI field. For this purpose, the company has developed a grand financial plan, expecting capital expenditures to reach as high as $23 billion (about 160 billion RMB) in 2026, with 85 billion RMB specifically allocated for the purchase of AI processors.
Through this deep collaboration with the Spring Festival Gala, Huo Yan Engine will not only handle the high-concurrency computing challenges but also has the potential to bring Doubao AI into millions of homes, achieving a remarkable leap from technical reserves to national applications.
