Bytedance challenge to WeChat

Source: Xinhua | 2019-01-16

Bytedance, which owns Toutiao and Douyin (TikTok), yesterday released a new social platform tool called Duoshan to take on Tencent’s WeChat.

Duoshan has “close and multi-layer links” with features of Douyin, which has 250 million daily active users, said Douyin president Zhang Nan.

“It is the year of both recording and sharing in 2019,” said Zhang, referring to the new tool combining short videos and social features.

Duoshan is available on Android and will soon be available on Apple’s iOS.

Bytedance released the new social tool to expand business, and also because Douyin links are blocked in the WeChat platform.

Tencent also issued a big update of WeChat recently with improved video sharing functions, which was seen to fight against Douyin.

The new releases highlight the competition between two dot-com giants, Tencent and Bytedance, which both have several hundred million active users.