ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo

ByteDance Company CEO Liang Rubo has noted at the all-hands meeting that ByteDance has set its keyword for 2026 as “Scaling New Heights” and Doubao/Dola AI is the peak of new heights. 

He said that scaling new heights requires increasing talent density and strengthening incentives for talent. ByteDance will continue to invest heavily in talent, ensuring that compensation and incentives remain at the leading level across all major global markets.

Doubao Still Lags Behind Global Leaders

At the start of the all-hands meeting, Liang reviewed some of the company’s business developments in 2025.

When discussing the AI business, he said that ByteDance’s foundational models are among the top tier in China, and its image and video generation models are among the leading tier internationally. Doubao’s user base and growth are both rapid, and the product experience has improved, but there is still a gap compared to the world’s top competitors.

“First of all, I want to say that true peaks are rare,” Liang said while interpreting the annual keyword.

He reviewed the development of the tech industry over the past 50 years, noting that every 15 to 20 years, a major peak opportunity emerges. Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple succeeded by seizing the peak opportunities of the PC, Web, and Mobile eras, respectively. However, after capturing one peak, these companies still face the challenge of climbing new ones.

Liang also mentioned that each subsequent peak is higher than the last, and AI is at least on par with the PC and Internet era in terms of significance. When a new peak emerges, few companies have the chance to participate, and those that have already scaled the previous peak often have a greater opportunity. If they can reach the new summit, the company will take a significant leap forward.

He gave examples, stating that Apple entered the market through PCs, and Google got on board via the Web—both seized the Mobile opportunity, and now both, especially Google, are well positioned in AI.

In addition, he believes that the window of opportunity at the peak is getting shorter and shorter. Liang Rubo cited that competition in the PC era lasted for more than a decade, but after the iPhone launched in 2007, it was clear by 2011 that the Mobile era belonged to iPhone and Android. So, the window for reaching the peak is shrinking.

Liang said, the connection between “striving for new heights” and ByteDance’s mission—“inspire creativity, enrich life”—is both natural and close. With Moore’s Law driving continuous increases in computing power and decreasing costs, the industry now has the opportunity to use more computing to deliver a better user experience.

When ByteDance first started working on recommendations, every user’s feed was different with each refresh, which consumed a lot of computing resources. But the improved user experience aligned with the company’s mission, so they persevered.

Now, with breakthroughs in AI technology, “trading computation for intelligence” has become possible. Enhancing user creativity and experience through intelligent technology is ByteDance’s fundamental approach to fulfilling the mission of “inspire creativity, enrich life” in the AI era.

“This approach has always been consistent—it’s just that we’ve moved from the recommendation era to the AI era,” Liang Rubo said.

He noted that since the launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, the application scenarios for AI assistants have expanded from the initial search Q&A and content creation to image generation, editing, AI programming, and more. Although some features are still immature, their practical value is already evident, and new scenarios are continuously being unlocked.

Liang stated that in the pursuit of new heights, every business at ByteDance has its own key breakthroughs to make. Most importantly, the company’s AI model capabilities must reach the forefront of the industry, and existing product services should be well integrated through assistants to achieve new heights overall.

In addition to consumer-facing assistant products, Liang believes there are significant opportunities in the B2B sector as well. MaaS (Model-as-a-Service) was the fastest-growing business for Volcano Engine over the past year. He said that only by excelling in both consumer assistants and B2B MaaS can model capabilities become more comprehensive, pushing the boundaries of intelligence.

Pay High Enough, Attract the Best

At the all-hands meeting, Liang also mentioned that striving for new heights requires increasing talent density and boosting incentives, so that top talent is willing to join ByteDance in this pursuit, and employees are motivated to stay and build their careers at the company.

The head of Performance and Incentives at ByteDance revealed at the meeting that the annual promotion rate and speed for ByteDance employees are overall higher and faster than those at other leading companies. Liang Rubo also stated that, according to statistical data, employees who join ByteDance earlier in their careers tend to develop more rapidly.

Liang explained that the fundamental reason behind this is that the company has seized opportunities, providing most people with the space to fully utilize their abilities and potential. In the current AI era, both the company and its employees are once again facing significant new opportunities. He said, "We hope more talented individuals will join us, seize these opportunities, and work together at ByteDance to reach new heights."

In December 2025, ByteDance issued an internal email to its global employees, announcing that it would continue to increase investment in talent, enhance salary competitiveness, and strengthen stock option incentives to directly address global talent competition.

Specific measures include: increasing the bonus pool (including performance-based stock options), with the 2025 annual performance evaluation cycle seeing a 35% increase compared to the previous cycle; significantly increasing the salary adjustment budget, up 1.5 times from the previous cycle; and raising both the lower and upper limits of total compensation for all job levels.

Speaking about the purpose of these new incentive policies, Liang Rubo emphasized that the overall goal is to ensure that employee compensation competitiveness and incentive returns remain "ahead of top-tier levels" in all global markets.

He also noted that ByteDance has always viewed investment in human resources as an investment—when the return on people is good, the company’s business thrives, and employees receive higher rewards.

In addition to increasing talent density and incentives, Liang also mentioned that achieving the goal of "reaching new heights" requires building world-class public trust to support more fundamental services.

The company will take public and regulatory concerns seriously, proactively maximize social benefits, respect users and clients, and uphold high standards in protecting their interests, especially regarding data and privacy security. It will also focus on managing industry relationships: maintaining humility and diligence in attitude, exploring more external collaborations in business, and establishing healthy, mutually trusting, and supportive partnerships.

Additionally, Liang stated that "reaching new heights" also requires the company to maintain strategic focus and strong integration and synergy in its business; to continuously improve business investment and efficiency; and, in terms of culture, to always maintain an entrepreneurial spirit, while strengthening the assessment and application of ByteDance’s values and leadership principles. (Author | Li Chengcheng, Editor | Li Yupeng)