We talked about the open rivalry between Tencent and ByteDance (then still called Toutiao) in early 2018. ByteDance is the first company in a while to threaten Tencent’s massive content, gaming and entertainment empire.
The number of active users, as well as the time spent on Baidu and Tencent apps, are closely watched by investors and industry observers.
Tencent, which controls WeChat, the largest social, messaging and everything app in China, has been systematically blocking links related to ByteDance, including those of Douyin (TikTok’s domestic version), Xigua, Duoshan etc.
In fact, ByteDance actually just launched a 52-page book detailing Tencent’s blocking and other activities over the yearsA_report_on_Tencent_monopolistic_practices_against_ByteDance_2018_2021
.
The book, entitled “A_report_on_Tencent_monopolistic_practices_against_ByteDance_2018_2021
“, lists all the practices between 2018 and 2021.
ByteDance even makes a WeChat post on the book, and offering paper-based copies as rewards for comments which get most likes.
Someone commented “It is brave! Accusing Tencent on WeChat” – and ByteDance replied “We should let Tencent hear the real voices”.
We are, however, not so sure whether 4th of June is the best time to launch such a campaign.