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Bytedance, one of the world's most valuable startups and the world-renowned video application operator TikTok, has been very busy. The Beijing-based company has continued to expand its list of apps to include the Lark Work Collaboration Tool, an instant messenger called Feiliao as well as a streaming music streaming app, and she now seems to be taking a bold step in hardware. .
Bytedance plans to develop its own smartphone, reported the Financial Times (using a paywall system), citing two sources. A spokesman for Bytedance declined to comment on the case, but the rumor is hardly surprising, since pre-installation of smartphones has long been a popular way for Chinese companies to access the internet.
Bytedance also emphasized the need to create more user acquisition channels. After a few years of unrestrained growth, Bytedance failed to meet its revenue target for the first time last year, as advertising spending in China slowed, according to a Bloomberg report.
Among the predecessors of Bytedance, we can mention Meitu, the manufacturer of applications for selfies, building smartphones with its photo editor series and recently sold this segment to Xiaomi, which is trying to capture more users, including Snow's B612 photo application and Bytedance, Faceu , lagging behind Meitu.
Others have taken a less cumbersome approach in early Chinese internet assets. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent – known as BAT for their supremacy in the tech world in China – have all been working on their own custom Android ROMs, with additional features compared to a preinstalled ROM. by a phone manufacturer.
Alibaba's ambition also resulted in a $ 590 million investment in Meizu in 2016, which brought the online trading giant up to the challenge of developing a bespoke operating system for the manufacturer. of handsets. More recently, in March, WeChat's owner, Tencent, has partnered with video game smartphone manufacturer Razor on a number of hardware-related initiatives.
The first signs of Bytedance's commitment to smartphones were early. The company confirmed in January that it had acquired some patents and some employees of the smartphone manufacturer Smartisan, although it said at the time that the agreement was concluded to "explore the education sector." It was a curious statement because the business sector of Smartisan has little to do with education. At the very least, the association confers a hardware development capability to the mobile Internet startup.
Indeed, a source told the Financial Times that Bytedance's founder, Zhang Yiming, "had long dreamed of a phone with preinstalled Bytedance applications." Nevertheless, it seems like it will be a tough battle, at least in China, where smartphone sales are falling and competing. it's intensifying between rooted players like Huawei, Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi and Apple.
Bytedance has built a foot away from home, thanks to its mobile apps empire. The company is one of the few Chinese start-ups that are able to gain a significant foothold globally, and many would say so in the first place. TIC Tac has consistently outperformed the global application rankings in recent months, although it also encountered some hurdles in some of its larger markets.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission fined TikTok for violating the law on the protection of children's privacy. The Indian government, which has largely contributed to TikTok's recent growth, has also challenged the application of temporarily banning it because of its illegal content.
While the US market may be difficult to penetrate given Washington's concerns about the threat that Chinese companies pose for security, India is full of Chinese brands. A study by Counterpoint revealed that during the first quarter, Chinese manufacturers led by Xiaomi controlled 66% of the smartphone market in India. This means that Bytedance, alongside its potential ally Smartisan, not only faces local rivals in India, but also the familiar faces of its domestic market.
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