Beijing-based ByteDance’s website listed more than 320 GenAI-related job openings as of Tuesday, up from 307 vacancies posted a month earlier, according to a search conducted by the South China Morning Post.
The pace of work at the Flow department – established last year within ByteDance’s product development and engineering operation – has become so intense that its employees have tacitly agreed to work on Saturdays and occasionally do overtime on Sundays, according to the Sina report.
ByteDance unit Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology two weeks ago introduced GenAI app Hualu, the Chinese version of BagelBell that was released in December for overseas markets. Both apps enable users to create virtual characters and interact with them in real time through various stories set in different universes.
ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Before BagelBell and Hualu, ByteDance had already launched several AI products, including chatbots Doubao and Cici, as well as application development platform Coze. So far, none of these have become even close to becoming as popular as the firm’s flagship short video apps.