TikTok owner ByteDance claims WeChat banning links makes Douyin more social in latest public spat with Tencent
- ByteDance China CEO Kelly Zhang says Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, is becoming a more social platform because its links are blocked on WeChat
- Competition between ByteDance and WeChat owner Tencent has been ramping up in many areas in recent years, including games and video streaming
The head of ByteDance’s China operations said Douyin users have become more social on the platform because of WeChat’s policy of blocking links to the short video app, becoming the latest volley in a bitter exchange between the two Chinese tech titans.
Kelly Zhang, CEO of ByteDance China and head of Douyin, said at an event organised by tech media GeekPark that Tencent’s decision to ban Douyin video links on the country’s most popular social network has led users to rely more on the social features within the short video app.
“[Social networking on Douyin] is occurring due to internal and external forces,” Zhang said. The internal reason, according to the CEO, is because of the massive popularity of the app, which had 600 million daily active users as of last August. The external reason, she said, is the WeChat ban. WeChat users started reporting problems with sharing Douyin links in March 2018.
“Everybody knows that Douyin is blocked by WeChat. But people are social animals who want to record, express, connect and interact with people out of instinct. When the instinct is cut off from external [channels], it naturally grows within Douyin,” Zhang said.
Tencent declined to comment.
In its 10 years of existence, WeChat has morphed from a simple messaging app into an all-purpose super app that includes mobile payments, games and more. It now has 1.2 billion users worldwide, the vast majority of them in China.
WeChat has blocked many third-party links for years, and ByteDance is not the only company affected. According to WeChat’s policies from 2019, the ban is meant to “optimise user experience and protect the legitimate rights of users”.
While the policy on certain third-party links has affected Tencent’s own partners and investees in the past, including JD.com, the practice remains controversial for competitors like Douyin. Some accuse Tencent of using WeChat’s dominant position to stifle competition.
As competition between ByteDance and Tencent heats up, the lines between Douyin and WeChat are blurring. WeChat launched its own short video feature last year, which had already accumulated 200 million users as of July 2020. Allen Zhang, the head of WeChat, said earlier this month that video will be an important format for content in the coming decade.
With WeChat advancing on its turf, Douyin has also started to harness the power of social networking.
ByteDance’s Zhang said social networking is “an important direction” for the app to head in as the company seeks to diversify Douyin’s features beyond just entertainment. Douyin has been testing social features such as video calls to strangers and playing interactive games with them at least since last February. In the last couple of years, ByteDance’s move into gaming has further fuelled the rivalry between the two companies.
Entertainment has not taken a back seat to other Douyin features, though. With live streaming still a pivotal feature of the app, ByteDance secured an exclusive partnership with state-owned broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) to distribute digital red packets during the Spring Festival Gala, a variety show aired on Lunar New Year’s eve that is recognised as the world’s most-watched television programme. The red packets, a tradition of gifting small sums of money, will help Douyin promote its new payment service that competes with WeChat Pay during the show next month.
Zhang said on Tuesday that using the short video app will become a new way for people to celebrate the festival. Douyin has prepared more than 50 special video effects and mini games, she said, as ByteDance seeks to make short videos a “new tradition” for the holiday.
ByteDance has previously complained about WeChat’s policy of banning links, although the company has never before claimed an advantage from the policy. In addition to banning Douyin links, WeChat has also blocked links to the rival’s Xigua Video platform and Feishu cloud office suite.