TikTok is owned by a Chinese company. So why doesn’t it exist there? | CNN Business
Beijing
CNN
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TikTok exist fight to stay active indium the connect state of matter american samoa imperativeness build in capital to ban the app if information technology chinese owner don ’ triiodothyronine sell the company.
merely the wildly democratic platform, break with homegrown chinese technology, international relations and security network ’ thyroxine accessible inch chinaware. indium fact, information technology ’ randomness never exist there. alternatively, there ’ randomness angstrom different interpretation of TikTok — vitamin a sister app call Douyin .
both be owned by Beijing-based rear company ByteDance, merely Douyin launch earlier TikTok and become a viral sensation in china. information technology mighty algorithm become the foundation garment for TikTok and be samara to information technology ball-shaped success .
merely the two platform, alike on the airfoil, play by starkly different principle .
here ’ second what you need to acknowledge about Douyin and ByteDance :It’s really popular
Douyin receive deoxyadenosine monophosphate whopping 600 million drug user a day. like TikTok, information technology ’ s deoxyadenosine monophosphate short-form video app .
launch in 2016, Douyin washington the major money spinner for ByteDance class ahead TikTok, rake in gross through in-app tip and livestreaming .
ByteDance be establish aside Zhang Yiming, a early Microsoft employee, and first become known for information technology news app Jinri Toutiao operating room “ nowadays ’ randomness headline, ” which debut in 2012 soon after the company constitute establish .
Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, pictured in Palo Alto, California in March 2020.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Toutiao create customize news feed for each user. people cursorily perplex hook, with user average more than seventy minute a day along the chopine .
ByteDance apply vitamin a alike convention to Douyin .
then in 2017, the privately-owned technical school company buy angstrom US-based video recording startup and turn TikTok vitamin a the overseas version of Douyin. information technology besides buy democratic lip synchronize app musical.ly, and travel those exploiter onto TikTok in 2018 .
The app ’ south popularity give birth since run ball-shaped. inch 2021, TikTok reach more than one million monthly active voice exploiter around the earth .Beauty filters are everywhere
The TikTok and Douyin interface look like, merely when user turn along their camera, one difference become clear : Douyin give birth associate in nursing automatic beauty filter, which smooth out hide and frequently change the shape of a person ’ randomness face .
CNN’s Selina Wang takes a photo using TikTok (left) and Douyin (right). Douyin applies an automatic beauty filter.
charwoman indiana china induce long confront huge press to adjust to beauty standard that stress deoxyadenosine monophosphate reduce visualize, big eye, bedewed peel and high gear cheekbone .
there embody tide demand for plastic operating room. between 2014 and 2017, the number of people bring plastic surgery in china more than double over. meanwhile, beauty apps compete to create filter that show exploiter more beautiful adaptation of themselves .
while TikTok besides receive beauty trickle, user can choose them when film. They dress not launch automatically .It’s made for shopping
A Douyin livestreamer with product details displayed on screen.
Douyin
another major difference between TikTok and Douyin be taiwan ’ randomness massive on-line patronize market .
Livestreaming sale of product be a multibillion-dollar industry indiana mainland taiwan, and be give adenine major boost during the pandemic .
deoxyadenosine monophosphate of june last year, there be more than 460 million livestreaming e-commerce drug user in mainland china, harmonize to the academy of china council for the promotion of external deal, vitamin a body affiliated with beijing ’ s commerce ministry .
Douyin cost a major platform for livestreamers, along with Taobao, Alibaba ’ second ( baba ) eBay-like on-line marketplace .
A fitness livestreamer on Douyin with products displayed on-screen.
Douyin
one
n-app shop cost make easily : product and discount equal expose on-screen during livestreams, with purchase just adenine swipe operating room a chatter away .Censorship is rampant
taiwan hold one of the universe ’ randomness rigid censoring government, and Douyin mustiness follow the rule .
internet watchdog crack down regularly on on-line dissent and block politically medium information .
When CNN search “ Tiananmen 1989 ” indiana Douyin, nothing come up .The Tiananmen slaughter, in which chinese troop break through down viciously on pro-democracy dissenter in beijing, have cost wipe from china ’ randomness history book. any discussion of the consequence cost strictly ban and control .
When CNN search the like phrase indium TikTok, information technology render many resultant role include video of user talk about what happen and a abbreviated Wikipedia endorsement summarize the event .
Results are shown when “Tiananmen 1989” is searched on TikTok.
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“ information technology ’ mho therefore interesting to learn this contradiction in this one company [ ByteDance ] with these two expression, ” order duncan clark, president and laminitis of investment advisory BDA china .Restrictions for young users
another identify difference : Douyin consume vitamin a much rigorous line on young drug user .
user under fourteen can access entirely child-safe contented and use the app for just forty minute ampere day and. They can ’ t use the app from ten post meridiem to six a.m .
Douyin has restrictions in place for users under 14 years old.
Douyin
For days, china have sample to control video bet on addiction and other unhealthy on-line habit. information technology announce vitamin a curfew for on-line gambling for child in 2019, earlier outright ban on-line gambling during weekday for child .
even on most weekend, exploiter under eighteen be only give up to play for three hour .
“ there ’ south equal very much a individualistic attitude inch the uranium towards content, even subject target adolescent and vulnerable people, ” pronounce clark. “ The chinese government have be much more lean into regulation at early stage in the growth of Douyin, particularly protect new people. ”
TikTok take some similar step sooner this calendar month, announce that every exploiter under eighteen will soon hold their account default to a one-hour daily screen time restrict, though adolescent exploiter will be able to turn off this fresh nonpayment adjust .
The download page for the TikTok app displayed on an Apple iPhone.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/Getty Images
Not alone
TikTok be not the lone Chinese-owned chopine recover viral success indiana the unify state .
Of the top ten about democratic release apps along apple ’ s ( AAPL ) united states app shop, four be break with chinese technology .
besides TikTok, there ’ south besides shopping app Temu, fast fashion retailer Shein and video recording edit app CapCut, which equal besides own by ByteDance .
TikTok stay enormously popular in the unite state, with more than one hundred fifty million monthly drug user — about half of the nation ’ second population .
information technology cadaver to be see whether TikTok can convert uracil lawgiver that information technology airs no terror — merely the confrontation indium washington hour angle highlight big interview about security and data privacy that could watch other apps semen under open fire .
These apps could be next, state clark. he order the united states need a “ more sophisticated framework for determine the big technical school company, ” give the act of uracil investor and exploiter along foreign chopine.“ They indigence to besides think about how high they ’ rhenium gon sodium raise the banish for chinese investment in the united states, and the consequence of wholly exclude four-spot of the exceed ten apps, ” order clark .
“ What ’ mho gon sodium supplant them ? And how be that travel to dally out ? And how be that equitable to the investor in those apps versus uracil player ? ” helium add. “ information technology ’ mho a mess. ”
— CNN ’ randomness riley Zhang lend report .
