The headquarters of Tencent, the parent company of Chinese social media app WeChat, 2020. Photo: AFP
Tencent Holdings has paid for an advert on the splash screen of ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, raising eyebrows amid increasing competition between the two tech giants as the latter moves into gaming and payments.
Tencent Games’ 15-second advert on Douyin, the most popular short video app in China, features Tencent’s senior vice-president Steven Ma, the unit’s boss, and is aimed at promoting Tencent Games’ ambitious rebranding campaign.