Kling Captures Generation and Workflow Revenue

Kling is trying to own both the engine and the editing room, which lets it make money each time a video is rendered and again when teams stay inside its software to plan shots, reuse characters, and localize ads. That matters because raw video generation is getting easier to compare across vendors, while workflow software is where habits form, teams collaborate, and higher value contracts get signed.1 2 3 4 5

• The model layer already has real outside demand. Kling said in April 2025 that more than 15,000 developers and business customers had used its API, and by June 2025 it said API services reached more than 10,000 corporate clients and developers across advertising, content creation, film, games, and devices. That is generation revenue even when another app owns the customer relationship.4 5
• The studio layer captures a different wallet. Inside Kling’s own app, users do more than press generate. They pick text to video or image to video, set shot timing, save characters and props, add voice, and reuse those assets across later projects. That turns Kling from a metered model vendor into production software that can justify subscriptions, credit upsells, and team plans.1
• Comparables show why the split matters. OpenArt and Higgsfield aggregate many video models and try to own the workflow, while Google sells Veo through Vertex AI at $0.75 per second and through its own interfaces. In that market, Kling can earn wholesale style usage through third parties, but its bigger long term defense is making its own studio sticky enough that creators choose the workflow, not just the model.2 3 6

The next phase is a fight over where margin pools settle. If standalone model access keeps getting more interchangeable, more value will move toward products that manage a full creative job from prompt to finished ad. Kling is positioned to collect both compute spend and software spend, especially as Kuaishou’s merchant base already uses AI generated marketing materials at industrial scale.1 2 7