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Find out who really dominates AI video creation

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By Mister Anderson • October 31, 2025 • ⏱ 8 min read

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Seedream 4.0, Wan 2.5, Hailuo 2.3 vs American giants Veo 3 and Sora. Our exclusive test with video results, detailed analysis and business insights.

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Why this experiment matters in 2025

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The world of AI video and image generation is going through a historic revolution. For years, the United States dominated this field with models like DALL-E, Midjourney, Runway and Veo. But today, China is propelling its own LLMs to the top of international rankings, challenging this technological dominance.

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This unique experiment aims to answer crucial questions: Which AI best understands my creative intent? Which one produces the smoothest, most engaging videos? What is the best value for quality, price and time ?

Concretely testing the three best Chinese models right now – Seedream 4.0 (ByteDance), Wan 2.5 (Alibaba), and Hailuo 2.3 (MiniMax) – against their American competitors under real marketing and creative production conditions.

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Our simple methodology

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The scenario: An IKEA magic transformation

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Imagine an IKEA ad video showing a Scandinavian bedroom assembling itself before our eyes. A sealed IKEA box trembles slightly, opens, and flat-pack furniture assembles itself quickly and precisely into a serene, stylish room, highlighted by IKEA's signature yellow throw.

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The challenges of the brief

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• Sequential storytelling: closed box → trembling → opening → assembly → final result

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• Brand identity: visible IKEA logo, clearly visible signature yellow

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• Visual style: clean, modern and warm Scandinavian aesthetic

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• Cinematic rendering: warm natural light with cool accents

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• Complexity: 12 distinct elements to integrate

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• Animation: fast but precise and believable assembly

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01.

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A single, exhaustive prompt

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We created a detailed JSON prompt simulating a real professional creative brief. Using a strictly identical prompt for each model lets us isolate performance differences without bias.

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02.

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Real production conditions

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All models are called via their standard public APIs or interfaces, with default settings, to exactly reproduce the conditions you'd encounter yourself.

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03.

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An objective scoring grid

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🧩 Narrative understanding,
🎨 Visual quality
🎯 Brief compliance,
🎬 Cinematic rendering,
⚖️ quality/price/time ratio.

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Video results and analysis

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Here are the videos generated by each AI model from the same prompt. Each result comes with our detailed notes and technical observations.

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The prompt in question:

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\ »Description : Cinematic wide-angle shot of a sunlit Scandinavian bedroom with natural warm lighting accented by cool tones.
Scene : A sealed IKEA box sits on the floor, visibly branded, and begins to tremble softly. The box opens slowly, and sleek flat-pack furniture rapidly and precisely assembles itself into a serene, stylish room.
Room details : The room includes a bed adorned with a bright yellow IKEA throw, bedside tables, modern lamps, a spacious wardrobe, shelves, a mirror, tasteful wall art, a cozy rug, flowing curtains, a reading chair, and indoor plants.
Motion : Smooth and realistic assembly sequence of furniture from parts, with no abrupt jumps. The camera remains fixed in a wide angle, capturing the full scene.
Ending : The final frame reveals a calm and modern Scandinavian bedroom highlighted by the yellow throw on the bed.
Text : No text overlay.
Keywords : 16:9 aspect ratio, IKEA, Scandinavian design, fast assembly, cinematic style, warm and cool lighting balance.\ »

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Seedance V1 PRO (ByteDance) 🇨🇳

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Mister Anderson's note: Good interpretation of the prompt, but limited narrative and no spatial sense. The rendering is decent, with believable texture but still too "3D." Good overall balance for the price and time, close to the level of American models.

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🧩 3/5 | 🎯 2.5/5 | 🎨 3/5 | 🎬 2.5/5 | ⚖️ 3.5/5

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Specs: ⏱ N/A | 💰 N/A | 📐 720p | 🎬 5 s

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Seedream 4.0 (ByteDance) 🇨🇳

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Mister Anderson's note: Very nice image quality and convincing cinematic rendering, but the scene already starts structured, limiting the narrative and the logic of the prompt. Good value for money, close to American standards.

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🧩 2/5 | 🎯 2/5 | 🎨 4/5 | 🎬 4/5 | ⚖️ 3/5

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Specs: ⏱ N/A | 💰 N/A | 📐 720p | 🎬 5 s

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Wan 2.5 (Alibaba) 🇨🇳

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Mister Anderson's note: Solid, smooth overall rendering, consistent with the prompt. A typically Chinese, slightly artificial visual style, but a very good balance between brief accuracy and overall efficiency.

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🧩 4/5 | 🎯 4/5 | 🎨 3/5 | 🎬 2.5/5 | ⚖️ 4/5

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Specs: ⏱ N/A | 💰 N/A | 📐 720p | 🎬 5 s | 🔊

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Hailuo 2.3 (MiniMax) 🇨🇳

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Mister Anderson's note: Correct interpretation of the prompt but very artificial execution. The rendering stays flat and 3D, lacking realism. A few good narrative intentions partly make up for the visual weakness.

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🧩 3/5 | 🎯 3.5/5 | 🎨 2/5 | 🎬 2/5 | ⚖️ 3.5/5

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Specs: ⏱ N/A | 💰 N/A | 📐 720p | 🎬 5 s

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Kling 2.5 PRO (Kuaishou) 🇨🇳

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Mister Anderson's note: Excellent understanding of the prompt, with near-perfect brief compliance and top-tier cinematic rendering. The video, while short, shows remarkable realism and coherence. However, one issue persists: text generation sometimes suffers from inconsistencies

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🧩 4/5 | 🎯 4.5/5 | 🎨 4.5/5 | 🎬 4/5 | ⚖️ 3/5

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Specs: ⏱ 1min | 💰 ≈ €1.40 | 📐 720p | 🎬 5 s

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SORA 2 – normal 🇺🇸

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Mister Anderson's note: Weak, visually dated rendering. Confused narrative, partial brief compliance. A slight audio presence adds something, but overall quality still falls short for the price. Good point: very fast generation.

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🧩 2.5/5 | 🎯 2/5 | 🎨 2.5/5 | 🎬 2/5 | ⚖️ 2/5

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Specs: ⏱ < 1 min | 💰 ≈ €3 | 📐 720p | 🎬 10 s | 🔊

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SORA 2 – JSON 🇺🇸

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Mister Anderson's note: Even weaker visual quality but slightly better-structured narrative. Nice touch with integrated sound. Cinematic rendering a bit more controlled but still limited. Ultra-fast generation despite a high price per second.

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🧩 2.5/5 | 🎯 2.5/5 | 🎨 2/5 | 🎬 2.5/5 | ⚖️ 2/5

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Specs: ⏱ < 1 min | 💰 ≈ €3 | 📐 720p | 🎬 10 s | 🔊

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Midjourney 🇺🇸

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Mister Anderson's note: Superb visual rendering and strong style, but weak narrative. The brief is partially met, offset by a very polished aesthetic. Excellent choice for short stylized images, less so for narrative coherence.

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🧩 2/5 | 🎯 2/5 | 🎨 4/5 | 🎬 4/5 | ⚖️ 3.5/5

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Specs: ⏱ 1min | 💰 included in subscription | 📐 720p | 🎬 5 s

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Veo 3.0 (Google) 🇺🇸

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Mister Anderson's note: Very good overall rendering with clear narrative and polished aesthetics. A few minor glitches, but excellent visual and audio coherence. Short video, smooth generation, but a high cost via API.

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🧩 4/5 | 🎯 4/5 | 🎨 4/5 | 🎬 3/5 | ⚖️ 3/5

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Specs: ⏱ 1 min | 💰 ≈ €1.60 | 📐 720p | 🎬 8 s | 🔊

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Veo 3.1 (Google) 🇺🇸

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Mister Anderson's note: The most polished result in the test. Excellent understanding of the prompt, near-perfect brief compliance and top-tier cinematic rendering. Short video but remarkably realistic and coherent, despite a still-high cost.

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🧩 4/5 | 🎯 4.5/5 | 🎨 4.5/5 | 🎬 4/5 | ⚖️ 3/5

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Specs: ⏱ N/A | 💰 ≈ €1.60 | 📐 720p | 🎬 8 s | 🔊

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Conclusion

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We don't claim to present a real model benchmark here — this comparison is mainly meant to observe how each LLM understands and interprets a video prompt in a subjective and useful way.

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While the visual quality of Chinese models doesn't yet match their American counterparts, their narrative logic and overall coherence are often surprising, particularly on English-language prompts. Their output sometimes appears more sensible and structured than what SORA or Midjourney generate, which tend to overplay style at the expense of meaning.

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Meanwhile, Veo clearly stands out from the pack — not just compared to its Chinese competitors, but also against SORA or Midjourney: its command of pacing, light and sound shows a real quality gap.

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It's worth noting, however, that the choice of JSON format in our tests isn't neutral: some models react poorly to it, but Mister Anderson considers it currently the most structured, effective method for getting coherent videos.

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Finally, one deciding factor stands out: sound handling. American players already integrate real audio processing, while Chinese models are still silent for now. Is this a gap that will widen, or a field where convergence will come faster than expected?

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The coming months will tell — because eventually, all these models will be on a level playing field, and it's how they integrate into our existing tools that will make the difference.

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To go further, I'd recommend checking out the excellent sites in-data-veritas.com and geniart.fr to learn more about the topic and the future of generation tools.

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Key takeaways from the benchmark

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01.

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Visual quality: China has closed the gap

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The visual quality gap between Chinese and American models has narrowed considerably. In 2025, that gap has shrunk to less than three months, or even disappeared on some criteria.

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02.

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Superior contextual understanding

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Chinese models show superior contextual understanding of marketing prompts, particularly around cultural nuances.

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03.

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A 70% cost advantage for SMBs

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For an SMB producing 100 videos/month, savings with Chinese models can reach 70% on the total AI budget, at comparable quality.

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Ready to optimize your AI video creation?

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Join our community of innovators and get the latest insights on creative AI.

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Frequently asked questions

\n\n\n\nWhat are the main differences between Chinese and American LLMs?\n

American models excel in artistic finesse and long narrative continuity. Chinese models compete on visual quality with 30-70% lower costs, better accessibility (freemium, open source), and superior contextual understanding of structured prompts.

\n\n\n\n\nWhy is prompt engineering so crucial?\n

Mastering prompt engineering tailored to each model can improve your results by 50-100%. Chinese models prefer structured JSON prompts with explicit metadata. American models prefer smooth, descriptive narrative prompts.

\n\n\n\n\nWhat is the real cost difference between Chinese and American LLMs?\n

Chinese models: €0.10 – €0.50 per 10-15s video
American models: €0.50 – €2.00 per video

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For an SMB producing 100 videos/month, savings can reach 70% on the AI budget.

\n\n\n\n\nWhich video LLM should an SMB choose?\n

Wan 2.5 for smooth animation • Seedream 4.0 for detail and texture • Hailuo 2.3 for the best cost • Veo 3 for premium cinematic quality

\n\n\n\n\nDoes prompt engineering work differently across models?\n

Yes, completely. Chinese models: use JSON or heavily structured prompts with explicit metadata. American models: use natural, descriptive narrative prompts that tell a story.

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Let's talk, easily

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AI agents and video LLMs aren't replacements. They're digital teammates who handle the creation while you create value.

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Mister Anderson has the recipe down: data, AI and good vibes.

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Contact us and let us buy you a coffee to talk about your first video generation!

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