Advertisement
Kuaishou
TechBig Tech

Kuaishou pulls its video app from US after failing to dent TikTok’s market dominance

  • Zynn, released by Kuaishou in May last year, once reached top spot on the App Store in the US with the help of cash rewards and gift cards
  • The company’s average monthly active users outside China exceeded 100 million in the first quarter and grew to more than 150 million in April

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
3
The Kuaishou app is seen on a smartphone in this arranged picture taken Feb. 2, 2021. Photo: Bloomberg
Tracy Qu

Zynn, a TikTok clone that once topped the iOS App Store in the US, has been taken down by its operator Kuaishou Technology, in what is seen as an admission that the dominance of rival TikTok in the American market is too hard to beat.

“We took the initiative and removed Zynn from the US App Store. Other overseas products will not be affected … our overseas strategy remains unchanged,” the Hong Kong-listed company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Kuaishou’s shares were down 2.5 per cent to HK$105.20 at the close of trading on Wednesday, lower than its issue price. The Beijing-based company saw its share price climb as high as HK$417 in February this year.

The main domestic rival to TikTok owner ByteDance, Kuaishou has been aggressively expanding in the overseas market with Zynn for the US and Canada, the Kwai app for South America, and Snack Video for Southeast Asia.

The company budgeted US$1 billion to increase its overseas user base this year and had already spent US$250 million in the first three months, local media LatePost reported in June, citing people familiar with the matter.

ByteDance itself has faced major challenges after TikTok became the first Chinese social media app to claim success in the US market. In June, President Joe Biden requested a review of security concerns posed by Chinese apps after he revoked his predecessor Donald Trump’s executive orders, which sought to ban them.
Advertisement