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Important to note that the author assumes that this is ByteDance, but the ASN belongs to their cloud solution BytePlus, which could be used by other companies.

Important to note that the author assumes that this is ByteDance, but the ASN belongs to their cloud solution BytePlus, which could be used by other companies. https://x.com/sauceo_/status/1842866301066518875 https://x.com/sauceo_/status/1842866301066518875 https://www.byteplus.com/en https://www.byteplus.com/en

teractiveodular 2y ago
This. Bytedance's official spider has a clear User-Agent tagged Bytespider, but OP didn't mention what they're seeing.
- jsheard 2y ago
  This isn't spider traffic though, the traffic pattern indicates that it's a special-purpose bot designed to hit Cobalts internal API in particular. A generic spider probably wouldn't even be able to find the API endpoints that are only referenced by Javascript, nevermind consistently hit the API with a valid video URL from a residential proxy then switch to a different IP address to download the result every time.
edouard-harris 2y ago
The author does address this possibility in a reply: > it's very unlikely to be someone else because pricing is astronomical. you also have to "contact sales" to get access to anything outside of a free trial. no one would pay that much for a block of ips with terrible reputation https://x.com/uwukko/status/1842866807763308615 https://x.com/uwukko/status/1842866807763308615
- Tiberium 2y ago
  Yes, but this is also pure speculation, since the product clearly exists, has customers, and even has a free trial.
- rfoo 2y ago
  > pricing is astronomical. you also have to "contact sales" to get access to anything outside of a free trial You don't have to contact sales if you are a Chinese-speaking customer. And pricing is fine. ByteDance has a different brand for their cloud services in China: https://www.volcengine.com/ https://www.volcengine.com/ [1]. But of course the underlying infrastructure are all the same. This is very likely done by a Chinese customer using ByteDance's cloud service. [1] Well, Alibaba Cloud did this too, and ByteDance is copying Alibaba 1:1 (who in turn is copying AWS) so I'm not surprised. But at least Alibaba named their international brand "Alibaba Cloud" and their CN one "AliCloud", similar enough.

teractiveodular 2y ago

This. Bytedance's official spider has a clear User-Agent tagged Bytespider, but OP didn't mention what they're seeing.

jsheard 2y ago
This isn't spider traffic though, the traffic pattern indicates that it's a special-purpose bot designed to hit Cobalts internal API in particular. A generic spider probably wouldn't even be able to find the API endpoints that are only referenced by Javascript, nevermind consistently hit the API with a valid video URL from a residential proxy then switch to a different IP address to download the result every time.

edouard-harris 2y ago

The author does address this possibility in a reply: > it's very unlikely to be someone else because pricing is astronomical. you also have to "contact sales" to get access to anything outside of a free trial. no one would pay that much for a block of ips with terrible reputation https://x.com/uwukko/status/1842866807763308615 https://x.com/uwukko/status/1842866807763308615

Tiberium 2y ago
Yes, but this is also pure speculation, since the product clearly exists, has customers, and even has a free trial.
rfoo 2y ago
> pricing is astronomical. you also have to "contact sales" to get access to anything outside of a free trial You don't have to contact sales if you are a Chinese-speaking customer. And pricing is fine. ByteDance has a different brand for their cloud services in China: https://www.volcengine.com/ https://www.volcengine.com/ [1]. But of course the underlying infrastructure are all the same. This is very likely done by a Chinese customer using ByteDance's cloud service. [1] Well, Alibaba Cloud did this too, and ByteDance is copying Alibaba 1:1 (who in turn is copying AWS) so I'm not surprised. But at least Alibaba named their international brand "Alibaba Cloud" and their CN one "AliCloud", similar enough.