'China's Google' accused of not playing fair by popular news aggregator
Start-up ByteDance and internet search giant Baidu both compete in the growing market for mobile newsfeed advertising in China
Baidu, China’s largest online search provider, has been sued by the operator of the country’s most popular news app for unfair competition amid an intense battle for the attention of mobile users and the lucrative advertising business they help generate.
Beijing ByteDance Technology, which runs the Jinri Toutiao app that had 232 million monthly active users as of December last year, said on Tuesday that it filed the lawsuit against Baidu at the Haidian District People’s Court in the Chinese capital, where both companies are headquartered.
In a post on its official WeChat account, ByteDance said Baidu used its “monopoly advantage” to mislead users and damage Toutiao’s reputation, the details of which it has filed in court.
Ahead of the ByteDance filing on Tuesday, Baidu issued a statement that described ByteDance’s lawsuit, like its public relations efforts, as reflecting “anxiety over its own challenges in development”.
The Nasdaq-listed company also threatened to take legal action against ByteDance, accusing the Chinese media start-up of making up stories to smear the search engine operator’s reputation.