ByteDance, the company behind TikTok video app, looks beyond entertainment with a move into education
- The deal will see some Smartisan employees join ByteDance as part of the ‘normal flow of talent’
ByteDance, which attracted a huge fan base of teenagers with its short video app Tik Tok, is developing a more serious side to its business that the fun-loving younger generation may not care for – online education.
The Beijing-based ByteDance, the world’s most valuable unlisted start-up, confirmed on Tuesday that it has acquired certain patents from Chinese smartphone maker Smartisan to “explore the education business”, without disclosing details.
The deal will see some Smartisan employees join ByteDance as part of the “normal flow of talent”, ByteDance said in a statement in response to earlier speculation that it would fully acquire the financially struggling smartphone maker.
The move is the company’s latest attempt to expand into the education sector amid Beijing’s tightened cyberspace controls that require short video app operators to more heavily censor their content.
Slower growth in the world’s second largest economy is also likely to hit ByteDance, which relies heavily on advertising income generated from its core content businesses such as short videos and news. ByteDance barely met its 2018 revenue target of 50 billion yuan (US$7.4 billion) to 55 billion yuan after a sharper-than-projected slowdown in advertising growth dampened by the country’s deteriorating economy, according to a Bloomberg report earlier this month.
“Unlike its competitor Baidu, which can use its search engine to reach the entire internet population, ByteDance has to move beyond content and tackle each business sector one by one to serve more users,” said Xie Pu, founder of tech website Techie Crab.
