Popular Social Video App Musical.ly Acquired by Chinese Tech Giant
Beijing Bytedance Technology Co. remains largely unknown to
most western consumers, but that may soon change as the Chinese tech giant,
which has a reported worth of around $20 billion and is both the creator and distributor
of the ‘Jinri Toutiao’ news aggregation app, has acquired the popular social
video network Musical.ly for an
undisclosed sum, although various sources cite the figure as being somewhere between
$800 million and $1 billion.
Founded in Shanghai in 2014, Musical.ly soon found
popularity among Western teens, allowing users to sing along karaoke-style to
their favourite songs before expanding their services to include live-streaming capabilities in response the
shifting consumer demands. Five months ago they expanded again, this time making deals with Viacom, Hearst and NBCU for original content provided by popular
channels such as MTV and E! Entertainment; appropriate choices given the generally
youthful nature of their user base.
Bytedance’s flagship app, Jinri Toutiao, aggregates news and
videos from hundreds of media outlets and has according to Bloomberg become one
of the world’s largest news services in the span of five years. The two apps
will continue to run as separate platforms, Bytedance have said, although they
are sure to each incorporate features from the other as the workforces mingle
and exchange ideas for future growth.
It remains unclear exactly how this shake up will affect
both companies. One thing however is certain; by combining Toutiao’s 120 million-strong
user base with Musical.ly’s own 100 million, you are left with a serious player
in the social media scene that is sure to give the likes of Snapchat at least
some cause for concern.
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Popular Social Video App Musical.ly Acquired by Chinese Tech Giant
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, November 20, 2017
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, November 20, 2017
Rating:
Unknown
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