China’s short-video app Douyin accuses Tencent of being anti-competitive
Douyin, which is owned by ByteDance, has been involved in a running dispute with Tencent over the representation of its content and access to the latter’s various social media and video properties.
China's short-video platform Douyin said on Wednesday it is considering legal action against internet giant Tencent Holdings, accusing the latter of using “its dominant market position to eliminate competition”.
Douyin, known as Tik Tok outside China, is owned by Beijing ByteDance Technology, which also operates the popular Toutiao news app. The company has been involved in a running dispute with Tencent over representation of its content and access to its various social media and video properties.
The latest instance was over the blocking of some Douyin video content by Tencent Video, which said “the cover images may contain inappropriate information”. Douyin said it didn’t understand why the content had been blocked and it received the same message even after changing the cover images.
“We have a lot of respect for Tencent but we’re deeply concerned by its recent actions, which we believe are an attempt to use its dominant market position to eliminate competition,” said Douyin on Wednesday. “As we’ve been unsuccessful in our attempts to reach a constructive resolution with Tencent, we have no choice but to take appropriate legal action to protect millions of users who want to share content and communicate with each other.”
Tencent declined to comment on Douyin.
“Videos about how to have fun in Chinese museums as well as a collection of touching stories about people with disabilities have been blocked by Tencent Video... We apologise to Douyin users for failing to show this appealing content,” Douyin said on its official WeChat video account on Tuesday, before today’s statement on taking legal action was issued.
ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming earlier this month accused Tencent’s Weishi video platform of “plagiarising” Douyin. He wrote on his WeChat Moments account, “the progress of Douyin was unstoppable despite Tencent’s blocking and Weishi’s plagiarism.” The usually low profile Tencent CEO and founder Pony Ma Huateng weighed in with a short, sharp reply: “[Your comments] can be understood as slander.”