TikTok app owner, ByteDance, is ramping up its recruitment efforts as part of its preparation to enter the lucrative video game industry. The move comes just months after the company had acquired the Shanghai-based developer Mokun Technology back in March this year.
The world's most valuable start-up reportedly posted more than 210 gaming-related job openings on its website late last week. The posts were apparently targeting qualified college-level students and also those who had recently graduated.
Some of the job openings that were posted included openings for game developers, graphics designers, and producers. Applicants that will be hired by the company will apparently be based in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
The ramping up of ByteDance's efforts has been predicted by market experts to potentially lead to an intense rivalry with Chinese video game giants such as Tencent Holdings. In July ByteDance had posted around 60 job vacancies on its websites, most of which were related to gaming.
The massive jump in job openings is likely a clear signal that the company is now kicking things up a notch, which could translate to a number of video games being released this year. According to market analysts, ByteDance does have a huge edge over other video game firms given its massive existing user base.
Unlike newly established companies and studios, ByteDance already has access to its millions of users on its popular mobile apps such as Jinri Toutiao and Douyin. In June, ByteDance had revealed that it had over 1 billion monthly active users across all of its mobile apps globally.
ByteDance was originally founded by former engineer Zhang Yiming in 2012. The company rapidly grew in the years that followed, thanks mainly to its popular video sharing platform TikTok. As of 2018, the company has been valued at around $78 billion. The company has grown to become a tech behemoth in China, threatening major players such as Baidu and Tencent.
One of ByteDance's strategies has been the integration of its various services throughout its different apps. As an example, ByteDance's biggest app Douyin, or more popularly known as TikTok in other countries, already has a built-in online shopping section that links users to products from Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall marketplaces.
Just two months ago, ByteDance announced that it was developing its own online search engine, which it plans to integrate into its various apps. The search engine could make ByteDance a possible threat to China's current search engine leader Baidu.
Apart from the search engine, ByteDance had also launched its own video-based social messaging service called Doushan. The app was built to compete directly with Tencent's own popular messaging app, WeChat.
