On May 4, according to China Business News, in response to the recent paid subscription service displayed by Doubao App in the Apple App Store, Doubao officially responded that Doubao has always provided free services. On the basis of free services, Doubao is also exploring the launch of more value-added services. Details of the relevant plans are still in the testing stage.
According to the latest data disclosed on the App Store page, the paid version launched by Doubao Plan includes three price gradients: the standard version is priced at 68 yuan per month (continuous annual subscription is 688 yuan), the enhanced version is priced at 200 yuan per month (continuous annual subscription is 2,048 yuan), and the highest-end professional version reaches 500 yuan per month (continuous annual subscription is 5,088 yuan).
According to people familiar with the project quoted by China Business News, the driving force for commercialization of beanbao exploration is the high computing power consumption and inference time when the model handles complex tasks. The paid functions launched in the future will be strictly separated from daily conversations and mainly focus on high-value productivity scenarios, specifically covering advanced needs such as automatic PPT generation, in-depth data analysis, and film and television content production. This action shows that Doubao is establishing a business model of “free basic tools + paid professional scenarios” to balance the relationship between mass popularity and computing power costs.