Cao Dapeng, former Popai chief at 01.AI, has been appointed as the leader of mobile products for Jimeng, an AI-driven video registration platform, according to Chinese media outlet LaPost on Thursday. CapCut Head Zhang Nan will also play a role in this initiative.
Why it matters: The primary objective of this endeavor is to create a Douyin-like platform (the Chinese version of TikTok) over the next decade, positioning Jimeng as a crucial component of its long-term strategy to dominate the AI-generated content landscape.
Details: Prior to joining 01.AI, Cao Dapeng worked at Feishu (Lark), a subsidiary of ByteDance, as a product manager starting in 2021. ByteDance is known for recruiting professionals with strong business acumen, and Cao fits this profile perfectly. Between 2013 and 2017, he co-founded an image-based startup, further solidifying his expertise in the tech and product development space.
- ByteDance’s Feishu, a collaboration app similar to Slack or Microsoft Teams, has already integrated DeepSeek, an AI tool, into its platform.
Context: Jimeng, launched under CapCut in May 2024, provides AI-powered image and video creation tools, along with intelligent screen features.
- Jimeng’s user base has experienced rapid growth, particularly following the explosive popularity of DeepSeek. The surge in DeepSeek demand has introduced new interactive use cases, such as generating detailed video scripts using DeepSeek and then creating videos with Jimeng. According to QuestMobile, a third-party analytics firm, Jimeng’s weekly active users skyrocketed from nearly 760,000 in late December 2024 to nearly 2 million by mid-February 2025—a threefold increase in just one and a half months.
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