China Digital Digest Weekly: Exploring the Chinese Digital Landscape
- ClickInsights
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Hi folks, we are back with our weekly edition of China’s Digital Digest, wherein we bring you weekly updates on China’s digital space. The report takes a quick glance at China’s complex and rapidly evolving social media landscape by providing updates on the latest happenings across the social media industry. Here are the major highlights of the report.
1. Meituan Eyes US$3 Billion From Bond Issue as Competition Heats Up
Meituan plans to raise US$3 billion through a dual-currency bond sale, as the Chinese on-demand delivery giant seeks to strengthen its cash reserves amid intensifying competition from Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com.
According to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, the Beijing-based firm will issue US$1.99 billion in U.S. dollar-denominated bonds and 7.08 billion yuan (about US$1 billion) in local-currency notes. Meituan said it has reached agreements with initial buyers and applied for the listing and trading of these bonds on the Hong Kong bourse. The company intends to use the proceeds to refinance existing offshore debt and for general corporate purposes, the filing added.
2. Meituan Open-Sources “LongCat-Video,” a 5-Minute Text-to-Video AI Model
Chinese tech giant Meituan has released its new LongCat-Video model, claiming a breakthrough in text-to-video generation by producing coherent, high-definition clips up to five minutes long. The company has also open-sourced the model on GitHub and Hugging Face to support broader research collaboration.
According to Meituan, LongCat-Video is built on a Diffusion Transformer (DiT) architecture and supports three modes — text-to-video, image-to-video, and video continuation. The model can transform a text prompt or a single reference image into a smooth 720p/30 fps sequence, or extend existing footage into longer scenes with consistent style, motion, and physics.
3. TikTok Reshuffles Its Organization, Promotes Young Executive
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has unveiled another significant internal shake-up, elevating 32-year-old executive Zhi Ying and further integrating the company’s product and operations divisions.
In a company-wide memo, Chew announced that TikTok’s operations department—which oversees content, creator monetization, and user growth—will now report directly to the product team, bringing operational execution closer to product development. The restructuring follows a series of organizational changes since August 1, when Chew appointed Zhi Ying to lead TikTok’s Platform Responsibility and Live Operations units.
4. ByteDance Unveils “Seed3D 1.0
ByteDance’s Seed team has launched the large-scale 3D generation model Seed3D 1.0, capable of producing high-quality, physically-rendered 3D models from a single image.
The model uses an innovative Diffusion Transformer architecture and is trained on massive datasets to generate full 3D geometry, realistic textures, and PBR (physically based rendering) materials. According to the official introduction, objects created with Seed3D 1.0 can be seamlessly imported into simulation engines such as Isaac Sim, requiring little adaptation before being used in embodied intelligence model training.
5. McDonald’s China team up with Mercedes-Benz
In one of the most surprising brand collaborations of the year, McDonald’s and Mercedes-Benz have teamed up for a new promotional campaign in China titled “So Mc-Benz” (就很麦驰).
The two brands have found common ground in creativity and buzz marketing, successfully pulling off an unexpected crossover that has captured widespread attention online. The campaign simultaneously promotes two new launches: McDonald’s White Truffle French Ham Angus Thick Beef Burger and Mercedes-Benz’s new all-electric CLA.
6. Kuaishou’s StreamLake Unveils Full AI-Coding Ecosystem
Kuaishou Technology, through its enterprise technology arm StreamLake, has officially entered the AI coding market with a comprehensive AI coding suite—CodeFlicker, KAT-Coder, and WanQing.
The launch marks Kuaishou’s strategic expansion beyond its short-video and live-streaming roots into enterprise AI infrastructure and developer tools. By integrating intelligent coding assistants, foundational models, and secure hosting into a unified ecosystem, StreamLake aims to address the growing demand for AI-driven software engineering solutions among enterprises and developers.
Wrapping Up
The vast and diverse nature of the Chinese Social Media space makes it incredibly challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments taking place. However, China’s Digital Digest brings you all the latest updates from there to keep you abreast of all the evolving trends.
To delve deeper into the findings of our latest report, click here.
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