Douyin wants merchants to stay. According to China National Radio (CNR), Douyin E-commerce rolled out nine merchant support policies in Q2 2026. The platform says the measures add up to about 100 billion RMB in cumulative savings for sellers. That is roughly 14 billion USD.
I read this news twice. Not because the number is big. Because of what it tells us about where Douyin is going, and who it wants on its shelves.
What Douyin announced
The package is simple on paper. Here are the points that matter for a brand:
- Nine support policies aimed at lowering the cost of selling on Douyin.
- About 14 billion USD (100 billion RMB) in cumulative savings for merchants, according to the platform.
- Faster settlement: merchants can get paid in as little as 3 days after the transaction.
- Qianchuan AI technical fee at 0.6%. Qianchuan (巨量千川) is Douyin’s e-commerce ad system. Its AI campaign tools now carry a low service fee.
- Generative AI at scale: the platform says AI now produces 1 to 2 million ad creatives every day for merchants.
My reading: Douyin is paying to keep sellers
Let me be direct. Douyin does not give away 14 billion USD out of kindness. It does it because sellers were hurting.
For two years, I heard the same complaint from clients in Shanghai. Traffic on Douyin works. Margins do not. Between commissions, ad spend, returns and slow cash flow, many merchants sold a lot and kept very little. Some moved budget back to Tmall or to Xiaohongshu. Some just cut back.
The 3-day settlement is the part I like most. Cash flow kills more small importers in China than bad products. A European food brand we work with had over 200,000 USD stuck in platform settlement cycles during a big promo season last year. With faster payment, that brand can reinvest in stock and ads during the same campaign window. That is real money, not a press release number.
The 0.6% AI fee is the second signal. Douyin wants every merchant on Qianchuan’s automated campaigns. The more sellers use AI bidding, the more ad data Douyin collects, the better its targeting gets. Low fee today, locked-in habits tomorrow.
The AI creative flood: good and bad news
One to two million AI creatives per day. Think about that. The feed will be full of fast, cheap, similar videos.
My view: this pushes the value of real content up, not down. When everyone has AI clips, the brand with a real founder story, a real factory visit or a real KOL (key opinion leader) test stands out. We already see it with our clients. AI creatives are fine for testing hooks and retargeting. For the hero video, a human face still wins on conversion.
So use the AI tools. But do not hand your whole brand voice to a machine that serves a million other sellers.
What this changes for foreign brands
- Lower entry cost. If you hesitated because Douyin looked too expensive, run the numbers again with the new settlement terms and fees.
- Better cash cycle. Faster payment means you can fund a second wave of ads inside a promo period like Double 11.
- More competition. Cheaper selling brings more sellers. Expect CPMs on Qianchuan to stay high in peak periods.
- Content is the moat. With AI creatives everywhere, differentiation moves to storytelling, KOLs and live streaming quality.
For context, Douyin’s parent ByteDance runs its commercial ad tools through Ocean Engine, where Qianchuan sits. If you plan to run ads yourself, that is where your account will live.
How to use this, starting now
Here is what I tell clients this month:
- Audit your unit economics. Recalculate your margin per order with the new fees. Some products that did not work in 2025 may work now.
- Test Qianchuan AI campaigns on a small budget. Start with 3,000 to 5,000 USD, one hero SKU, two weeks. Compare with manual campaigns.
- Keep humans on the hero content. Use AI for variations, not for the main story.
- Plan live streaming. Douyin still sells best through live. Brand self-streaming plus a few mid-size KOLs beats one expensive top star.
If you are new to the platform, start with our guide on Douyin e-commerce and social commerce. For paid media, read our breakdown of Douyin advertising strategies for foreign brands. And if you want a view on ROI for lead generation rather than direct sales, see why Douyin ads work so well for leads.
At GMA, we set up and run Douyin stores, Qianchuan campaigns and live streaming for foreign brands from our Shanghai office. If you want a second opinion on your numbers, talk to us.
Question for you
Douyin is cutting costs and flooding the feed with AI creatives. Will this make it easier for foreign brands to win, or will it just bring more competition and push prices back up? I would like to hear what you see in your own campaigns.
