ByteDance makes foray into automotive cloud field

Beijing (Gasgoo)- ByteDance, China’s tech company owning the popular video platform TikTok, recently introduced its automotive cloud business and is reportedly in talks with an auto company about intelligent driving cloud services.  

photo credit: ByteDance

Sources disclosed that ByteDance has been recruiting specialists from the cloud service departments of Amazon and JD.com for its own automotive cloud business. In the meantime, the company plans to team up with an automaking startup and an autonomous freight service provider regarding intelligent driving cloud service projects. 

The automotive cloud business of the company is reportedly to provide services in three major sectors, namely the IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. As of now, the company gave a “no comment” on the matter.

According to ByteDance’s current five-year business plan revealed by the source, the automotive cloud project is divided into two phases. First, from 2021 to 2022, the company intends to expand its overall cloud service portfolio, including vehicle to everything (V2X) cloud, autonomous driving cloud, and commercializing the cloud service as an add-on to its current products.    

Next, from 2023 to 2025, the company sets a target of matching Tencent in overall revenue.

Additionally, in September last year, the company formed a V2X team as its first move into the auto-service-to-business territory. It is said there are roughly 50 people in its R&D team, in Beijing and Shanghai, and a product has already been released.  

The V2X platform integrates the entire contents ecosystem of the company, including TikTok, and adopts an AI context to voice TTS technology. The company has reached installation agreements with Geely and Changan Auto over the said platform. Hundreds of thousands of units have been installed now, a person close to the matter told a local media outlet.

Moreover, the company has participated in the A-round investment of China’s autonomous driving company QCraft, and the investee provides scenario and simulation capability to ByteDance’s automotive cloud.

ByteDance is also negotiating with SAIC Group’s mapping subsidiary, Heading Data Intelligence, which wants to receive ByteDance’s strategic investment or establish a joint venture.

Notably, the founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, emphasized the company’s stance of “not making cars” during a conference with the V2X department in June.