TikTok owner ByteDance kills off chat app Feiliao in sign of business consolidation
- Feiliao, an instant messenger that was relaunched as a Clubhouse-like audio social app in July, has disappeared from app stores in China
- Recent attempts by the world’s most valuable tech unicorn to diversity its business have focused on e-commerce rather than social media
A social networking app from ByteDance, the Chinese owner of globally popular short video-sharing platform TikTok, has been taken offline in a fresh sign that the world’s most valuable unicorn is retreating from some non-core businesses to consolidate operations.
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ByteDance has dissolved the team behind Feiliao and transferred members to other departments, according to Chinese media 36Kr, suggesting that the app is being shut down. Existing users can no longer access the app’s services.
ByteDance declined to comment on Monday.
Feiliao was one of ByteDance’s major attempts to crack China’s social networking market consisting of more than a billion users. The field is currently dominated by Tencent Holdings’ multipurpose app WeChat, known in China as Weixin.