Bytedance's doubao reduces chat team amid strategic shifts

ByteDance's Doubao, which recently surpassed 200 million daily active users, is reportedly shrinking its chat team. The team, previously around 50 people and the largest within Doubao, is expected to cut its size by half. Some members will transfer to Doubao's commercialization and Feishu teams, while others will be laid off. The restructuring is led by Zhao Qi, who has been with ByteDance for over a decade and previously managed growth and advertising platforms. Zhao moved to Doubao in September 2025 and became the head of the newly merged product team after the integration with Feishu in July 2026. He also disbanded the independent evaluation team and distributed its members across other business groups. The Product Posttrain-Chat team, led by Zhu Wenjia, is also being reduced. This team, part of the Seed department, worked on fine-tuning models for Doubao. With declining business needs, some employees have moved to other departments. The head of the dialogue model integration team has changed twice in a month. Despite the cuts, Doubao continues to optimize its chat features, merging multiple small models into one by June. A ByteDance insider noted that the company has secured the 200 million DAU entry point and can leverage this user base and existing capabilities to test new directions.