Many people keeping an eye on the Chinese digital market know Tik Tok, which is known as Douyin in China. Not many know the company behind Tik Tok, ByteDance and its founder Zhang Yiming. ByteDance has also created several other very popular mobile apps such as Toutiao and Xigua Video.

ByteDance’s products continue to grow in international markets with a world of creators and content. As of March 2018, ByteDance’s products are available in over 40 countries and markets including China, Japan, South Korea, North America, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and India.

ByteDance launched three brand new mobile apps in 2018.

Pipixia, a competitor of another popular mobile app Neihanduanzi (an entertainment app, which means implied jokes), went online three months after Neihanduanzi was removed permanently from the app stores for vulgar content in April. And then, it launched an e-commerce app Zhidian in August. In early October, Xincao, offering services similar to Xiaohongshu (social e-commerce app), is available for download. Furthermore, ByteDance launched an instant messenger chat app, seen as a challenger to WeChat in mid-January 2019.

ByteDance’s major product and revenue source is the news aggregation mobile app Toutiao before 2015.

The other mobile apps are Toutiao-affiliated apps. Toutiao rose abruptly from low-tier cities, growing stronger in a tight corner. Similarly, Tik Tok sprung up right at the moment Kuaishou (Kwai) had acquired 100 million daily active users and seemed to hold its leading position in short video market for a long time.

ByteDance has over 30,000 employees in total, 10,000 of them working for commercialization, the second biggest department after the 13,000-people editorial review department. The commercial department is in charge of generating an annual 50 billion yuan revenue from Toutiao advertising. They achieved 45 billion yuan in revenue in early December 2018.

The technology department is divided into groups based on different business lines. Algorithm team that offers basic recommendation engine technology, essential for every business line at ByteDance.

ByteDance’s organization structure is good for fast product iterations. In addition, a new product often functions in the form of a virtual program, pending evaluation of the performance review. The development of a new mobile app at ByteDance usually re-use the existing modules to reduce the development cost.

It’s rare at ByteDance one person is in a fixed position for a long time. Its resources follow product development.

Once the company decides a new program, the one in charge will pick team members from three departments. Commercialization comes at a later stage; and, new user acquisition plan would also be dependent on user retention performance.

Nowadays, it becomes easy for some technology companies including ByteDance to produce the visual design of mobile apps such as layout, graphics, etc. Providing products to meet users’ need is the key. The connection between users and information is not only about manual editing but also dependent on editors’ and algorithm recommendation. The latter is the how Toutiao-affiliated apps find their ways to gain popularity.

ByteDance’s product strategy is to develop multiple products following a determined strategy and direction, followed by evaluations to see which one works best for more resources. The cost of the trial-and-error procedure is reduced to the lowest considering its mass production capacity.

In the eyes of many well-funded internet startups in China, making a giant app that serves many functions is the best. Take Meituan Dianping for example, which offers great value and is strong in user stickiness, abundant in resources, and compatible with technologies.

Rising on the mass user base of Toutiao app, one feature spins off Toutiao and becomes a separate mobile app once mature. This is how ByteDance’s other mobile apps followed the success of Toutiao, such as Dongchedi, Xigua Video, and Wukongwenda (merged into Weitoutiao in 2018). All this relies on its efforts in continuous innovation.

This article is an excerpt of CIW eBook: Secrets of ByteDance

Kantar’s social media report has found that Chinese respondents are generally happy with changes brought by social media. People born in 1990s (post-90s) showed more caution against negative impacts of social media. 

WeChat continues its dominance, however, its growth has largely slowed down. Weibo is making a comeback, many new and old social media platforms are managing to find value developing niche user groups.

Growth of Social Media Platforms in China

While usage penetration and daily active user base keep increasing among all WeChat users, its popularity among 18 to 25 years old had a slight decrease according to Kantar’s research.

Weibo penetration rate had a significant increase, and its influence among younger generation rose.

QQ penetration rate remains unchanged, but usage is increasing among younger users.

Old age groups represent the social media growth hotspots.

“Makeup before leaving home” has been accepted by more female social media users in China. Chinese social media users aren’t necessarily always on the go: they prefer to stay home if nothing special is going on. Inner beauty has a greater recognition among them, and they are more increasingly ready to join charitable causes.

Social Media is Everywhere

Social media not only refers to applications like WeChat, Weibo, QQ and Momo, but also includes thsoe with social functions in video, news, e-commerce, etc.

Mango TV, the video app launched by Hunan Satellite TV Station, is expanding quickly among the young users.

Mobile news app Toutiao grows rapidly

The most recognized positive feature of social media is to help people keep track of friends and family members, followed by following trending topics and learning new knowledge.

Female users feel social media is helpful in making purchasing decisions, relieving pressure and enhancing self-confidence.

Younger generations see social media as an important way of relieving stress. Older generations use it for effectively communicating with friends and family members.

Social media also creates negative impacts in China:

Younger social media users in China are more aware of negative impact brought by social media who are more cautious against impulsiveness, loss of concentration, negative values online, and etc.  90% have taken actions to control the damage, and self-discipline was the most chosen path.

Around 40% of the 90s respondents said they turned off social media app notification.

More than 95% users admit they pay attention to the level of personal information they share on social media according to the survey by Kantar.

Most social media users selectively pay attention to social ads, dominated by Tencent and Weibo. The most important factor is whether it is “humorous and interesting”. The second most important factor is the ads’ relevance with the audience.

Chinese consumers want ad (in all formats) with humor, music and interesting stories.

Most users feel social ads are quite relevant to them.

WeChat is the most satisfying app. Life service reviewing apps/sites, such as Dianping and Ctrip, ranked second at 81.7, followed by social functions on e-commerce platforms (81.2).

WeChat stands out in both usage rate and user ratings; and, dating social networks haven’t made an impact in China yet.

Weibo received particularly positive scores by younger generations: the younger the users are, the higher score they’d give Weibo. The post-90s gave it 79.3 score. Weibo’s monthly penetration rate grew by 3.7 percentage points in April from a year ago to 35.7%. While the penetration rate among the 18-25 age group jumped 13.7 percentage points to 45.9%.

Post-80s users give the highest rating for dating social networks, probably because it is most in demand among them due to their life stage (generally, marriage is a pressing and sometimes depressing issue in China when one reaches a certain age).

Social function within video/live streaming platform is popular among post-80s and post-90s.

Social function within news apps gets a score of 79.7, and are preferred by users in tier-1 cities in China.

Tencent News, Toutiao, and Yidianzixun are the top 3 mobile news apps by MAU in China in March 2017, all exceeding 100 million active users.

Tencent News is integrated with several mobile apps from Tencent family including WeChat. It’s not a surprise to see over 220 million MAU.

Related: Top Mobile Apps, Mobile App Stores in March 2017

Toutiao (or Jinri Toutiao; today’s headlines), founded in 2012, has over 172 million active users in March 2017. It’s now more than a product of recommendation engine based on data mining and offering Toutiao account registration for individual users who can share and monetize their knowledge and experiences.

The chart is from the updated E-Book – Mobile Trend in China 2017

Tencent News is the top mobile news app by the total number of monthly active users (150.6 million), followed by Toutiao, Tiantian (also owned by Tencent), Sohu News, and Phoenix News.

Phoenix News Pro app tops the App Store paid news app ranking. All top 10 paid apps but Phoenix News are mobile gaming apps.  Ifeng.com believes that the algorithm has to strike a balance between news quality and personal interest; between common interest, potential interest, and individual interest.

Continue to read → China’s mobile apps market insights in 2016