Who Uses Tokens? Excerpt from Understanding the Token Economy Examines Demand, Value and Risk
Tencent Research Institute’s WeChat account has published an excerpt from Understanding the Token Economy by Du Ning, CEO of Ruige Taike (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., under the title “Who Uses Tokens?” The piece shifts the discussion from the supply side of large-model infrastructure to the demand side, asking what token consumption actually accomplishes, how much labor it saves, and what kind of value it creates.
The article argues that the core unit of measurement is changing from traffic and attention to task completion. In this framework, individuals use AI to extend their capabilities, enterprises use tokens to reorganize workflows and improve efficiency, and software systems or agents increasingly trigger token consumption automatically. It outlines five main paths through which tokens can turn into economic value: efficiency gains, revenue growth, capability expansion, organizational change, and knowledge discovery.
The excerpt also focuses on enterprise management. It discusses token budgets, ROI, auditing, and what the author calls “token operations,” drawing a comparison with FinOps in cloud computing. It further distinguishes between low-value, mid-value, and high-value tasks, arguing that equal token volumes can produce very different outcomes depending on where they are used.
The final section centers on risk. Hallucinations, data leakage, overreliance, fairness concerns, cost overruns, and unclear accountability are presented as key constraints on whether tokens can move from low-risk experimentation into high-value business processes.
