Chinese market regulator fines Douyin, Kuaishou for publishing controversial micro loan ad

Name: What is Kuaishou? Understanding China’s video-sharing app
Uploaded: 2021-10-19T07:33:09.000Z
Duration: 2 min 1 s
Description: What is Kuaishou? Understanding China’s video-sharing app

Short video app operators Douyin and Kuaishou were each slapped with a US$31,000 fine for violating China’s advertising law

The controversial micro loan ad that the two firms published was produced by JD Technology, the fintech arm of JD.com

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Short video-sharing app operators Douyin, run by TikTok owner ByteDance, and Kuaishou Technology were recently handed fines by the State Administration for Market Regulation for violating China’s advertising laws. Photos: Weibo, Bloomberg

Coco Feng

Published: 3:33pm, 19 Oct 2021Updated: 10:52pm, 19 Oct 2021

China’s two largest short video-sharing app operators, Douyin and Kuaishou Technology, have each been slapped with a 200,000 yuan (US$31,088) fine by regulators for publishing a controversial micro loan advertisement that encouraged “excessive consumption”, according to government records.

The fines were handed on October 11 by a branch of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), in the Haidian district of Beijing, for violating China’s advertising law, which bans campaigns identified by authorities as “disturbing the public order or going against a good social climate”. Both Douyin, run by TikTok owner ByteDance, and rival Kuaishou are headquartered in Beijing.

The advertisement features a man of modest means inside an aeroplane with his mother. Worried about his airsick-prone parent, the man takes out an instant loan of 150,000 yuan via a JD.com app to get her an upgraded cabin seat.

Campaign producer JD Technology, the financial technology arm of e-commerce giant JD.com, had apologised for the advertisement in December last year, when it went viral and panned for being insensitive to people of low income. In July, regulators slapped JD Technology with a 400,000 yuan fine for the commercial.

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What is Kuaishou? Understanding China’s video-sharing app

SAMR regulators also confiscated revenue of 39,400 yuan and 74,200 yuan, respectively, from Douyin and Kuaishou, according to the companies’ records on the state-owned National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. It described the behaviour of the two app operators as having “serious value problems that preached incorrect orientation, such as excessive consumption”.

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