ByteDance, owner of global hit short video app TikTok, on Monday unveiled a collaboration with Shenzhen-based electronics giant Konka Group Co, which is introducing a new smart television series powered by the Chinese tech unicorn’s MEyou operating system.
Co-developed with Konka, MEyou OS marks ByteDance’s initial foray into the market for large-screen operating software, offering a platform that has a more intuitive search function, supports gesture control and enables content from several devices to be shown simultaneously on a single TV.
For example, a family can watch a drama or sports programme, while shopping online on the margin via split screen. One family member can even play a video game on the TV, while another watches yoga exercises.
MEyou OS is expected to help revive the relevance of large TV screens in an era when smartphones, tablets and personal computer screens have gained more attention because of people’s increased need to work and study from home as part of precautions against Covid-19, according to Zou Wei, director of ByteDance’s Smartisan OS unit.
The Smartisan unit hoped to “bring a new experience upgrade to the smart TV ecosystem”, while showing consumers and the broader market “the team’s innovation in the smart TV field”, Zou said during the live-streamed product launch on Monday.
Shenzhen-based Konka Group Co is offering MEyou OS-powered television models under its Aphea smart TV series. Photo: Shutterstock
Konka, which also uses Android and webOS on its other TV models, has opened for pre-orders its MEyou OS-powered Aphea A6 Pro TVs in 65, 75, 86 and 98-inch screen sizes, which were introduced on Monday. These models are priced between 9,999 yuan (US$1,569) and 39,999 yuan, according to Zhu Zhongqing, Konka’s sales director in China, in a statement on Monday.
The ByteDance collaboration also comes at a time when Konka, once China’s largest TV maker from 2003 to 2007, continues to struggle in a highly competitive domestic TV market, where it has seen annual demand steadily decline.
Overall TV sales in China, the industry’s biggest market, last year plunged 13.8 per cent from 2020 to 38 million units, the lowest volume recorded in 12 years, according to Beijing-based research firm All View Cloud.
Shenzhen-listed Konka, which also manufactures and sells refrigerators and other home appliances, posted revenue of 7.3 billion yuan from its TV business, or less than half of that unit’s sales in 2014, according to the company’s 2021 annual report. TV sales accounted for just 15 per cent of Konka’s total revenue last year.
Huawei Technologies Co has pushed its own operating system, HarmonyOS 2.0, to various Chinese consumer electronics brands. Photo: Shutterstock
MEyou OS pits ByteDance against Huawei Technologies Co, which introduced its own operating system, HarmonyOS 2.0, about 10 months ago for use in various devices including smartwatches, smart televisions, smart home appliances and other sensor-equipped gadgets that are connected to the internet and interact with mobile apps.
In July 2019, the company initially made a deal with highly indebted Android handset maker Smartisan, founded by entrepreneur Luo Yonghao, to develop new smartphones. That plan was later suspended by ByteDance, so that it can start another programme focused on education hardware and software products with former Smartisan chief technology officer Wu Dezhou.
Earlier in 2017, Smartisan provided a mobile operating system to a smartphone manufactured by Konka, but that handset never took off. Smartisan has not launched another smartphone model since October 2020.
Privately-held ByteDance, which embarked on a sweeping corporate restructuring last November, has continued to make calculated moves that ensure it does not stray from its business goals and Beijing’s tightened regulatory regime, while exploring potentially significant areas for expansion.
The company had a valuation of US$350 billion, according to the latest Hurun Global Unicorn Index published by Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute in December. Total 2021 revenue reached US$58 billion, up 70 per cent from a year earlier, according to a Reuters report. Its 2020 revenue, by contrast, grew 111 per cent to US$34.3 billion.
