TikTok owner ByteDance blasts Tencent over comments on ‘pig feed’ short videos as feud heats up again

After Tencent vice-president Sun Zhonghuai compared personalised short-video content to “pig feed”, ByteDance said Tencent was stigmatising the industry

Tencent is finally seeing some success in short videos with WeChat Channels after long failing to mount a significant challenge to TikTok sister app Douyin

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Published: 2:30pm, 5 Jun 2021Updated: 9:47pm, 5 Jun 2021

The war of words is flaring up again between Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings and TikTok operator ByteDance after a Tencent executive compared short-video content on other platforms to “pig feed”, as competition in the sector continues to heat up.

Sun Zhonghuai, Tencent’s vice-president, criticised short video platforms for pumping out vulgar and lowbrow content to users. “Personalised distribution of content is too powerful. If you like pig food, that’s all they’ll feed you,” Sun said at the China Internet Radio & Video Convention on Thursday. Sun did not mention any competitors by name.

ByteDance – the operator of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok and the country’s biggest short-video app – was quick to respond. Sun’s comment “stigmatised the short-video industry” and was “extremely arrogant and unfair”, the company said in an article posted on Tencent’s WeChat platform on Friday.

ByteDance claimed that its Shenzhen-based rival has been moving aggressively into the short-video sector, accusing Tencent of anticompetitive behaviour by blocking links to ByteDance apps from opening directly within WeChat since March 2018.

The company‘s post on Friday spanned 52 pages with images and links outlining a three-year period, through April 11 this year, of WeChat’s alleged misconduct. By Friday evening, the post had been removed from ByteDance’s official account.