ByteDance in search of new growth beyond TikTok | WARC | The Feed

ByteDance in search of new growth beyond TikTok

TikTok-maker ByteDance is seeking new forms of growth through apps targeting longer form video and video production.

Why it matters

TikTok has remained resilient in its ad revenue, but with a groundswell of political opposition to the app from governments and major organisations the company is seeking to diversify user growth.

What’s going on

In China, ByteDance will debut a new video app, Qing Tao, according to the South China Morning Post. Adding to a roster that includes the popular Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, the new app seeks to build out a young user base around longer knowledge content with topics including tech reviews, pop science and culture, the newspaper reports.

• The move reflects the need of the company to diversify in the face of regulatory scrutiny around the world and intensifying competition from rivals, and it seeks to train its video expertise on the longer-form content on the video site Bilibili.
• It comes as knowledge content – often based around teaching, with how-to videos and long lectures - gains popularity across video apps, and with volumes growing 35% on Douyin alone.

Elsewhere, ByteDance is finding success by building out the video editing tools that have helped to make TikTok and Douyin popular through CapCut, which has recently overtaken TikTok in US app charts according to the Wall Street Journal.  While CapCut says its data processing for non-Chinese users is the same as TikTok’s policy, it remains possible that this app is also under regulatory pressure.

• It appears that its popularity stems from its ability to help users to make videos that perform successfully across apps, not just on TikTok, and garner views on Meta and Alphabet properties.
• However, it chimes with a recent move from Meta to add a subscription tier for creators, by focussing on improving the experience of power users who create the content that powers the apps’ broader popularity.

Sourced from WARC, SCMP, WSJ