Looks like China’s obsession with short videos is not going away anytime soon.
Douyin, arguably the most beloved app among Chinese youths, now has over 200 million daily active users (DAU) in China with a monthly active user (MAU) count of over 400 million as of October, local media is reporting (in Chinese).
In June, Douyin revealed that its DAU in China was 150 million and MAU was 300 million—meaning the app has managed to gain around 50 million DAUs and 100 million MAUs in the course of five months.
Speaking at the World Internet Conference at Wuzhen today, Zhang Fuping, Party secretary and vice president at Bytedance, announced the new milestones reached by the company’s virally popular short video app Douyin. Zhang said the app has continued to grow at a rapid pace not only in China, but globally. Douyin’s international version, Tik Tok, has had breakthroughs in many countries, according to Zhang the company’s globalization plans are advancing smoothly. Tik Tok was the world’s most downloaded non-game app in iOS App Store in Q1 2018.
ByteDance, the operator of Douyin and Tik Tok was recently crowned the world’s highest valued startup at $75 billion. In mid-July, Douyin announced that it amassed 500 million MAUs worldwide—just two years after its launch in September 2016.
Short videos have become one of the fastest growing trends in China. Typically lasting only a few minutes, video clips on apps like Douyin are consuming around 9% of Chinese users’ time spent online.
In October, Douyin launched mini programs, which would most likely increase usage even further. However, not everyone is happy about the rise of short videos apps. Tencent banned WeChat users from sharing external links to short videos on major short video apps, Douyin included—which the tech giant claimed was to vet inappropriate content on its messaging platform. Douyin and Tik Tok also got on the nerves of government authorities in China and abroad. In July, Tik Tok was banned by the Indonesian government following public outrage over their negative influence on youth.
– This article originally appeared on TechNode.
