NetDragon and Volcengine Establish Partnership to Build a New AIGC Ecosystem

HONG KONG, Jan. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited ("NetDragon" or "the Company"; Hong Kong Stock Code: 777), a global leader in building internet communities, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an AI ecosystem and innovation cooperation framework agreement with Volcengine, the cloud and AI services platform of ByteDance. Through this partnership, the two parties will collaborate across technology, resources and ecosystem development to scale the production of next-generation AIGC-powered educational resources and foster a globally co-created and shared innovative education ecosystem. Volcengine highly recognizes NetDragon's leading position in global digital education, as well as the unique value of its extensive education scenario data, mature education product ecosystem, and global network of partner institutions. NetDragon's AIGC strategy across education, entertainment and culture will be deeply integrated with Volcengine's advanced AI infrastructure, marking a new phase in its AIGC development.

Under the partnership, the two parties will establish a long-term and deep strategic partnership, covering four major dimensions: joint technological innovation, ecosystem resource co-creation, commercial application empowerment, and industry engagement. By closely combining Volcengine's advanced AI technologies with NetDragon's deep industry expertise in education, Volcengine will support NetDragon in developing, training, and continuously iterating education-focused vertical large language models applicable to a full range of scenarios, including teaching, assessment, administration and content creation, setting new industry benchmarks. Meanwhile, both parties will continue to increase investment in computing power, algorithms and data, enabling the scalable development of high-quality AIGC educational resources such as courses, vocational training programs and digital assets, and building an open, intelligent education content ecosystem. Going forward, the outcomes of the collaboration will be deployed across commercial scenarios such as smart campuses, teacher training and industry talent development, supporting the realization of both technological and commercial value. The deep integration of "technology + scenarios" is expected to significantly improve the efficiency and cost structure of AIGC education content production, unlocking economies of scale and delivering more cost-effective and sustainable solutions to global education systems.

In recent years, NetDragon has adopted a "Fully Embracing AI" strategy and established its "AI Content Factory" across education, entertainment and culture sectors to enable the efficient generation of high-quality AIGC content at scale. In the education sector, the AI Content Factory adopts a core architecture of fragmented nodes and expert systems, accumulating expert knowledge in different subfields through multi-node agents to form a stable and reproducible AIGC education content production capability. Looking ahead,  NetDragon plans to expand commercialization scenarios domestically with partners like Volcengine, while overseas it will integrate with the Open-Q ecosystem to further amplify global growth potential.

In the entertainment sector, NetDragon focuses on the iterative production of interactive content for its flagship evergreen IPs, achieving AI-driven transformation across the entire production process. This is expected to support sustained profitability, while over the medium to long term, AI-native games are anticipated to create additional revenue growth opportunities. In the cultural sector, several high-quality enterprises invested by NetDragon, such as ShuaiKu Network and animation IPs, are actively embracing the strategic empowerment enabled by AIGC. In areas such as AIGC-driven animation series and AI/VR online performances, NetDragon will continue to identify and invest in high-potential opportunities. Through the application of AI computing power and vertical AIGC models, NetDragon will continue to expand the capability boundaries and long-term value creation potential of its broader enterprise ecosystem.

NetDragon commented, "The cooperation with Volcengine marks a new milestone in NetDragon's AIGC initiatives. By leveraging Volcengine's AI computing power and foundation models, our AI Content Factory is expected to deliver stronger and higher-quality AIGC capabilities across education, entertainment and culture. This will empower NetDragon's core and emerging businesses, as well as our partners across the broader cultural entertainment and on-device AI sectors, driving sustainable performance growth and long-term value creation across the NetDragon ecosystem."

Volcengine stated, "NetDragon is a well-established and highly respected company in China's internet technology sector. Since early 2023, NetDragon's proactive transition towards AIGC has delivered remarkable results, and its comprehensive capabilities in the AIGC space are now among the industry's leading tier. We appreciate NetDragon's recognition of Volcengine's cloud and AI capabilities. We attach great importance to this cooperation and look forward to expanding collaborations in areas such as AI computing power synergy, vertical AI model development, and IP licensing of high-quality AIGC content. We also believe NetDragon's rapid progress in AIGC will generate meaningful incremental value for Volcengine." 

In addition to its partnership with Volcengine, NetDragon has recently become an ecosystem partner of Epic Games, a global leader in digital engine technologies. Its Digital Education Town has been designated as the second officially authorized Unreal Engine training center in China. Looking ahead, NetDragon will further leverage Unreal Engine's advanced technical capabilities to enhance visual quality and 3D performance of high-quality AIGC educational content, empowering the next-generation global education ecosystem to be more effective, more efficient, and more engaging.

Julie Lottering, Head of Global Education and Learning at Epic Games, said, "Over the next five years, we hope Unreal Engine will serve as a bridge between industry and education. We are pleased that NetDragon has become a new ecosystem partner of Epic Games and look forward to working together to drive further innovation in the digital economy."

About NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited  

NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 777) is a global leader in building internet communities, with a long track record of developing and scaling multiple internet and mobile platforms that impact hundreds of millions of users. Over the desktop and mobile internet eras, NetDragon previously established China's first online gaming portal, 17173.com, and China's most influential smartphone app store platform, 91 Wireless.  

Established in 1999, NetDragon is one of the most reputable and well-known online game developers in China with a history of successful game titles including Eudemons Online, Conquer Online, Heroes Evolved and Under Oath. In the past 10 years, NetDragon has also achieved success with its EdTech business both domestically and globally. Fully embracing the new AI era, NetDragon is driving its vision of "Infinite Growth" through a dual-focus strategy of "AI+Gaming" and "AI+Education". With its AI Content Factory empowering operations and working with partners to develop a global learning metaverse, NetDragon is committed to once again building a massive user community in the new AI era.

NetDragon's overseas edtech business entity, currently a U.S.-listed subsidiary named Mynd.ai, is a global leader in interactive technology and its award-winning interactive displays and software can be found in more than 2 million learning and training spaces across 126 countries.  

About Volcengine

Beijing Volcano Engine Technology Co., Ltd.("Volcengine") was established on May 11, 2020, with a registered capital of RMB 1 billion. As ByteDance's cloud services platform, Volcengine opens up the growth methodologies, technical capabilities, and application tools accumulated during ByteDance's rapid expansion to external enterprises. By leveraging cloud and intelligent technologies, Volcengine helps businesses build capabilities in experiential innovation, data-driven decision-making, and agile iteration, driving enterprise AI transformation and unlocking new growth potential.

Volcengine provides cloud computing and large-model services for ByteDance's China operations, supporting mobile internet platforms such as Douyin, Toutiao, and Lark, as well as AI-native applications including the Doubao app, Coze, and Maoxiang. Through the continuous refinement of large-scale, high-traffic businesses, ByteDance has accumulated substantial infrastructure resources, engineering expertise, and organizational capabilities, providing leading cloud and AI services to customers across industries through Volcengine.

Doubao LLM is ByteDance's self-developed large model. It has been validated across 50+ internal business scenarios and refined by daily usage at the scale of tens of trillions of tokens. It empowers enterprise AI transformation with superior performance, lower costs, and faster deployment. In the AI era, Volcengine is committed to next-generation cloud and AI infrastructure, supporting customers' digital transformation and intelligent upgrading, and serving as their "next cloud" for long-term growth. 

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SOURCE NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited