Kuaishou’s top e-commerce influencer accuses platform of unfair treatment in rare public spat

The top influencer on Kuaishou Technology, China’s No 2 short video platform, has complained about being unfairly treated in a rare open spat between a live streaming star and a major internet platform. Xin Youzhi, widely known as Xinba, or The Lion King’s Simba in English, has stopped updating his social media since Saturday, when … Read more

TikTok owner ByteDance denies report of profit surge in 2023, prepares to launch Instagram rival

ByteDance, the owner of short video app TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin, has denied a news report saying the company’s profits jumped 60 per cent last year, as it plans two new apps – one to rival Instagram and another targeting European users – amid political headwinds against TikTok in the United States. Bloomberg … Read more

TikTok owner ByteDance stays hands-off as video app faces US ban, leaving local team to become more aggressive

The Chinese parent of TikTok has kept a safe distance from the troubles facing its short video app in the US, leaving the response to the local team and Singaporean CEO Chew Shou Zi as they face a possible legal battle against a forced sale or a ban, according to people briefed on the matter. … Read more

US lawmakers want a TikTok sale or ban, but China’s ByteDance won’t give up without a fight

The bill is headed to the US Senate, where both Democratic and Republican leaders have rejected the idea of fast-tracking its passage. 03:10 Protests at US Congress after House passes bill that could potentially ban TikTok nationwide Protests at US Congress after House passes bill that could potentially ban TikTok nationwide While US President Joe … Read more

TikTok gets thumbs up in China for ‘tough stance’ against US lawmakers pushing new effort to ban the ByteDance app

ByteDance, the Chinese tech unicorn that is again facing a US ban of its flagship TikTok app unless it divests, has earned a “thumbs up” at home after rallying its young users against the legislation in an effort mirroring some of the more aggressive tactics from American platforms several years ago. That same year, the … Read more

Which were the most used apps during Lunar New Year? Familiar names like Tencent and ByteDance dominated top 5

The most used apps in China during the Lunar New Year holiday were familiar domestic social media and content platforms that have dominated the market for the past decade, according to government data. Among the apps that used the most cellular data during the nine-day holiday were Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok owned by … Read more

Hong Kong ‘comedy king’ Stephen Chow to launch Douyin mini-drama series amid booming popularity of the format

Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow Sing-chi, a popular actor in mainland China known as the king of comedy, has inked a deal with Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to make an exclusive series, as A-list talent and Big Tech join hands to take advantage of a mini-drama frenzy. The project – code-named “9527” in … Read more

TikTok owner ByteDance allows employees to cash in stock options earlier under new payroll policy

ByteDance, owner of global short video hit TikTok and its Chinese sibling Douyin, has adjusted its payroll policy to allow employees to sell their stock options faster, as plans for an initial public offering (IPO) remain in limbo. Under the new rule, applicable to ByteDance’s 110,000 employees worldwide, workers will receive 20 per cent of … Read more

ByteDance’s Douyin makes instant refunds mandatory, following PDD, Taobao and JD.com amid fierce e-commerce competition

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok that is betting big on e-commerce, has made its “express refund” policy mandatory, forcing merchants to immediately return money to consumers upon request to compete with similar offerings on Taobao and Pinduoduo. The platform operated by Beijing-based ByteDance, which added a shopping channel in 2019, allows users to get … Read more

After TikTok-owner ByteDance cuts the fat to focus on fundamentals, social commerce challenges and US election loom

In other words, ByteDance – which had divided itself into six units including gaming, education, TikTok, Douyin, enterprise collaboration platform Feishu and cloud service Volcano Engine – has drastically shrunk two of its businesses. Meanwhile, education has hardly lit up the room since Beijing cracked down on private tutoring in 2021. It is quite a … Read more