On January 7, 2026, Sun Shaojun, the founder of Che Fans, disclosed that ByteDance was engaged in discussions with a particular automaker with the intention of jointly developing vehicles. Nevertheless, a responsible individual from ByteDance refuted these claims, asserting that the rumors were false and that the company currently had no intentions of venturing into car manufacturing. Prior to this, ByteDance had already partnered with ZTE to introduce the inaugural mobile phone, the nubia M153, which came integrated with Doubao Mobile Assistant technology. Furthermore, the company had also made strides in AI mobile phone collaborations with the likes of vivo, Lenovo, and Transsion, by pre-installing AIGC plugins. This move was aimed at forging novel avenues for traffic monetization, with a strategic focus on initially targeting mid-range models priced above 2,000 yuan.
