Tencent, ByteDance roll out new apps as China’s Big Tech firms return to quest for growth
- Tencent has launched a social media app targeting online gamers, while ByteDance has introduced a medium- and long-form video app
- The new apps reflect efforts by Chinese internet companies to strengthen their grip on their respective fields after a major regulatory crackdown
ByteDance and Tencent Holdings both released new apps recently, as China’s Big Tech firms gun for new growth after nearly two years of business retreat and consolidation under Beijing’s tightened regulatory scrutiny.
Social media and video gaming giant Tencent earlier this month launched Xiaoe Yuyin, a social media app that includes a voice chat function for users to play video games as teams.
Still in testing mode, the app currently targets players of Tencent’s blockbuster multiplayer online battle game Honour of Kings, helping them match up with each other and showing data of their performances, according to the app’s introduction on iOS and Android app stores.
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TikTok owner ByteDance meanwhile has unveiled a medium- and long-form video app named Qing Tao, launched by the same team that operates Douyin, China’s most popular short video app.
Qing Tao, which translates as “green peach”, is aimed at younger users with interest in knowledge content such as electronic gadgets, popular science and culture, according to the app’s introduction page.
The new apps reflect efforts by Chinese internet companies to strengthen their grip on their respective fields amid an intensifying competition for the eyeballs of China’s 1.2 billion mobile internet users.
Douyin, which boasts 600 million daily active users, is facing challenges from key rival Kuaishou Technology and Tencent’s fast-growing Channels, accessible to all users of its super app WeChat.
Qing Tao enables ByteDance to expand its focus beyond short videos and into longer content, an area currently dominated by other user-generated video sites such as Bilibili.
So-called knowledge videos, which range from simple how-to tutorials to lengthy academic lectures, have become one of the fastest-growing content categories on Chinese video sites amid growing government control on entertainment content.
While Chinese tech companies have repeatedly churned out new products to test the waters over the years, ByteDance and Tencent’s new apps come as the industry has slowed down its pace of expansion.
The Shenzhen-based giant had gone through months of cost-cutting efforts, including shrinking its workforce and shutting certain businesses, as economic and regulatory headwinds hurt businesses such as video gaming and advertising.
