Is the free-access era of China's AI and short-video platforms coming to an end?

Big discussion on Chinese social media today is that Doubao (豆包), the popular AI assistant by Bytedance, is introducing paid subscriptions: standard plan at 68 yuan/month ($9.5), advanced plan at 200 yuan/month ($29), and professional at 500 yuan/month ($73).

Even though Doubao said its basic Q&A functions will remain free, the move is seen as a potential turning point. Another ByteDance product - the Hongguo (红果) short drama platform - is also testing monetization now, continuing this strategy of acquiring users for free → then monetize via premium services.

Although some think it's normal for Doubao to follow a route similar to ChatGPT/Claude, many users don't get the move: "You wanna charge me for giving me hallucinated answers to my questions?"