# China Supposedly Spends Over Half Its AI Tokens on Video — but the Gunpowder Analogy Misfires

> The viral quip that China uses AI for "fireworks" fails on the history, the economics and the strategy; the token data shows a commercial threshold being crossed, not a technology being wasted.

Publisher: The Quant (https://thequant.market)  
Published: 2026-10-18  
Section: economics  
Language: en  
URL: https://thequant.market/articles/china-supposedly-spends-over-half-its-ai-tokens-on-video-but  
Cite as: The Quant, "China Supposedly Spends Over Half Its AI Tokens on Video — but the Gunpowder Analogy Misfires", 2026-10-18, https://thequant.market/articles/china-supposedly-spends-over-half-its-ai-tokens-on-video-but

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More than half of China's AI tokens now go to generating video, according to the best public estimate — and the internet's favorite response was a history joke: "gunpowder, fireworks, same old story". The arc behind the number is less quotable: national token consumption went from 100 billion a day in early 2024 to 140 trillion by March 2026, a 1,400-fold rise, according to the National Data Administration. Whether the 55% marks frivolity or something else is a question the joke gets wrong three times over.

## What the number actually is

The 55% comes from industry token-call data cited by Chinese Online, a listed content company, at its June 2026 investor-relations activity: 55% of domestic token consumption for AI short drama and video generation, 24% for e-commerce marketing, 15% for software development. No methodology has been published, and no official breakdown exists — the National Data Administration publishes only the total. The total itself shows how slippery the accounting is: ByteDance's Doubao disclosed 120 trillion daily tokens in April 2026 and 180 trillion by June, against a national figure of 140 trillion last published for March. The two series are not nested and are not measured on the same day; the company meter, three months newer, already exceeds the last official national total. Treat 55% as an estimate, not an audited figure. The direction is corroborated — Tan Dai, president of ByteDance's Volcano Engine, attributes Doubao's growth to video generation and agents — and since much of the "e-commerce marketing" slice is also generated video, the true video share plausibly sits between half and two-thirds.

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