ByteDance vs Tencent: Douyin bans financial, health care influencers from redirecting followers to Tencent’s WeChat and QQ
- Finance videos, including those on economics and wealth management, are one of the most popular types of content on Douyin
- ByteDance has previously complained about WeChat’s policy of banning links, including those from Douyin and its Feishu cloud office suite
ByteDance has pushed back against rumours that its short-video platform Douyin, the TikTok of China, was blocking links to rival Tencent’s WeChat and QQ social networking apps, alleging that the reports were a coordinated campaign targeting the platform.
However, the Beijing-based tech giant did clarify that it was blocking links to WeChat and QQ from finance- and health care-related content creators, citing a high risk of scams and illegal sales tactics on third-party platforms.
The episode is the latest in an ongoing spat between the two Chinese entertainment giants.
“This type of action [to block rivals from an internet platform] is quite common in the industry. There isn’t a law to forbid it,” said Ge Jia, an independent internet analyst who has followed the industry for more than two decades.
Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok operated by ByteDance, said on Monday that it would not allow influencers who produced such content to redirect their followers to other platforms like Tencent’s WeChat and its messaging app QQ.
