ByteDance shows off its ChatGPT in the spring node.

In early February 2026, China's two internet giants Tencent and Alibaba launched the new year's AI battle - Tencent offered 1 billion yuan in cash incentives through its Yuanbao platform, and launched a new AI social feature "Yuanbao Pai"; Alibaba's Qianwen offered 3 billion yuan in benefits to encourage users to order takeout on the app. Although ByteDance had already secured the title sponsorship of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala earlier with the Volcano Engine, it did not become the focus of public opinion amidst the noise of red envelopes and subsidies. It wasn't until the week before the Lunar New Year when the video generation model Seedance 2.0 was released, quickly fermenting in creator circles and industry discussions, pushing it back into the spotlight. On February 14th, ByteDance successively launched the Dou Bao Big Model 2.0 and the image creation model Seedream 5.0 Lite. On New Year's Eve, ByteDance brought the Volcano Engine, Dou Bao App, and the Seed series large models to the Spring Festival Gala stage. From stage design and visual effects to robot speeches and broadcast support, AI permeated the Spring Festival Gala for the first time in a comprehensive manner. Even interactive gameplay was redesigned: viewers had to use the big models in Dou Bao to generate images or text in order to receive red envelope benefits. The red envelopes contained not only cash, but also technology products such as 3D printers, cars, drones, and robots. This was ByteDance's Lunar New Year campaign. A ByteDance employee told us that, unlike many companies that see the Lunar New Year as a simple growth opportunity, they want to create a collective memory about AI and technology at this juncture; they also want to show the outside world that AI is not just about creating one or two applications, but serving various industries. It is understood that the technology products given out during the Spring Festival Gala were customers of the Dou Bao big model.