Bytedance is dropping the best video gen model in the world in early July: Seedance 2.5!

The video below (audio on) is the launch video from their Volcano Engine conference this week. It cements China’s absolute dominance in video.

— 2x’d generation length of all previous models to 30s, with audio + 4k video — >5x’d reference images / audio / video to 50 — Allows localized editing (specific characters, closing, detail), will come with copyright filter

Seedance 2 is already the #1 video model and does a whopping $2B in ARR, in a mere 4.5mos! At the current pricing of $2.5/15s, that implies >3.3M hours of video (!) have been generated. That’s 3x every feature film ever made and dozens of Netflixes. Only 3 US AI startups make more revenue.

We are 2x’ing realistic video gen length every 6mos. — May 2025: Veo 3 does audio + video for the first time, 15s — Jan 2026: Kling 3 does 15s — Feb 2026: Seedance 2 does 15s, big quality bump — July 2026: 2.5 will do 30s In 18mos, entire music videos will be oneshotted by AI.

China continues to extend its lead on video models vs America.