Douyin's Vice President, Li Liang, has publicly refuted online rumors claiming ByteDance is the biggest short seller impacting the Hang Seng Tech Index. The statement was made on his personal Weibo account following the widespread attention garnered by ByteDance's new video generation model, Seedance 2.0.
Li Liang clarified that the recent downturn in the Hang Seng Tech Index began in October 2025, when the index reached a阶段性高点 (stage high) before entering a correction phase that has persisted. He emphasized that ByteDance had not released Seedance 2.0 at that time. Instead, he pointed to other factors from that period, including renewed trade war tensions and the release of third-quarter earnings reports from several major index constituents. These companies reported significant losses or sharp profit declines due to their involvement in subsidy competitions, which placed downward pressure on the index.
Secondly, Li Liang argued that stock market movements are influenced by multiple factors. He identified a sharp reversal in market expectations regarding the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts as the primary driver of the recent global market decline, leading to tightened liquidity. This development affected not only the Hang Seng Tech Index but also caused weakness in the Nasdaq and Bitcoin. He questioned the logic of attributing the Hang Seng Tech's decline solely to ByteDance, asking rhetorically if the company could also influence the entire Nasdaq or even digital currencies.
While acknowledging that the decline of some individual stocks within the index might be related to Seedance 2.0, Li Liang also noted that certain heavyweight stocks in the computing power sector could experience逆势上涨 (counter-trend gains) due to the emergence of superior domestic AI models. He stated that if Seedance 2.0 has any impact on the index, it is multifaceted and should be viewed comprehensively. He believes innovation and competition in large models will ultimately advance AI technology, and companies involved will grow through mutual inspiration.
Li Liang dismissed claims that business competition between ByteDance and companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Meituan supports the "largest short seller" narrative as unfounded. He criticized the attempt to misrepresent temporal coincidence as causality, calling it an absurd and malicious effort to sow discord among companies and blame temporary, multi-factor index fluctuations on the launch of a competitive product.
In related news, following the success of Seedance 2.0, ByteDance's Doubao large model officially launched its 2.0 version, attracting significant attention. Doubao has risen to the top of the free app rankings on the Apple App Store, a move widely attributed to exposure and interactions during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
This is not the first time Li Liang has publicly addressed market rumors concerning ByteDance. In September 2025, he refuted speculation about a potential ByteDance listing in Hong Kong, suggesting it might be deliberate misinformation aimed at炒作 (hyping) ByteDance-concept stocks.
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