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NetDragon Partners with Volcengine to Build a New AIGC Ecosystem

On January 27, NetDragon signed a strategic framework agreement with Volcengine, the cloud and AI service platform under ByteDance, to collaborate on AI ecosystem development and joint innovation. Together, the two parties will build a deep, integrated partnership across technology, resources, and ecosystem capabilities, enabling the large-scale production of next-generation AIGC educational content and fostering a globally co-created and shared innovation ecosystem for education. Volcengine highly recognizes NetDragon’s leading position in global digital education, as well as the unique value of its extensive education scenario data, well-established product ecosystem, and global network of institutional partnerships. By combining NetDragon’s comprehensive AIGC strategy across education, entertainment, and cultural sectors with Volcengine’s advanced technology infrastructure, the collaboration will drive NetDragon’s AIGC development into a new phase.

The two parties will establish a long-term, deep partnership covering four key dimensions: joint technological innovation, co-creation of ecosystem resources, empowerment of commercial applications, and industry-leading brand initiatives. By closely combining Volcengine’s advanced AI capabilities with NetDragon’s deep expertise in the education sector, the collaboration will support the research, training, and iterative development of large AI models tailored to the full spectrum of educational scenarios, including teaching, assessment, management, and content creation, setting a new industry benchmark. Both sides will continue to invest heavily in computing power, algorithms, and data to scale the development of high-quality AIGC courses, practical training programs, digital assets, and other educational resources, thereby building an open, intelligent ecosystem for educational content. The outcomes of this collaboration will be applied in smart campuses, teacher training, and industry talent development, creating a closed loop between technological and commercial value. The deep integration of “technology + scenario” will significantly optimize production efficiency and reduce costs for AIGC educational content, unlocking economies of scale and delivering more cost-effective and sustainable solutions to global education systems, thereby contributing to the advancement of education worldwide.

In recent years, NetDragon has centered its strategy on “fully embracing AI”, establishing in-house AI Content Factory across education, entertainment, and cultural sectors to achieve large-scale, high-efficiency output of high-quality AIGC content. In the education field, NetDragon’s AI production center is built around a fragmented-node + expert-system architecture, where multiple agent nodes accumulate expertise across specialized domains, forming a stable and replicable capability for producing AIGC educational content. Domestically, NetDragon will expand commercial applications in collaboration with partners such as Volcengine, while overseas it will leverage the Open-Q ecosystem to further scale its global impact.

In the entertainment sector, NetDragon focuses on iterative production of interactive content for its flagship, evergreen IPs, fully integrating AI across the entire production process and all nodes. This approach is expected to continuously enhance profitability, with medium- to long-term growth further driven by AI-native games. In the cultural sector, several of NetDragon’s invested companies, including ShuaiKu Network and various animation IPs, are actively embracing the strategic empowerment enabled by AIGC. Moving forward, NetDragon will continue to explore opportunities in areas such as AIGC-based animated series and AI/VR online performances, leveraging AI computing power and vertical AIGC models to expand the capabilities and value growth of its portfolio companies.

NetDragon commented: “Our partnership with Volcengine marks a new stage in NetDragon’s AIGC strategy. By combining Volcengine’s AI computing power and foundational models with our AI Content Factory, we will unleash stronger and higher-quality AIGC productivity across education, entertainment, and cultural sectors. This will empower NetDragon’s traditional and emerging businesses, as well as all our partners in the broader cultural entertainment and AI hardware ecosystem, jointly driving performance growth and long-term value enhancement for the NetDragon enterprise group.”

Volcengine added: “NetDragon is a longstanding and distinguished enterprise in China’s internet technology sector. Since early 2023, NetDragon’s proactive strategic transformation toward AIGC has delivered remarkable results, establishing it as a leader in the AIGC space. We greatly appreciate NetDragon’s recognition of Volcengine’s cloud and AI capabilities. We highly value this collaboration and look forward to expanding business synergies in areas such as AI computing power collaboration, vertical AI model development, and IP licensing for high-quality AIGC content. We anticipate NetDragon making rapid, breakthrough progress in AIGC, creating significant value for both NetDragon and Volcengine.”

Beyond its collaboration with Volcengine, NetDragon has recently become an ecosystem partner of the globally renowned digital engine technology company Epic Games, with its Digital Education Town becoming the second officially authorized Unreal Engine training center in China. Moving forward, NetDragon will leverage Unreal Engine’s powerful technological capabilities to further enhance the visual effects and 3D performance of high-quality AIGC educational content, empowering the next-generation global education ecosystem to be more effective, efficient, and engaging.

Julie Lottering, Director of Education at Epic Games, commented: “Over the next five years, we hope Unreal Engine can serve as a bridge between industry and education. We are also delighted that NetDragon has joined our ecosystem as a new partner, and we look forward to jointly driving more innovation for the digital economy.”