Chinese tech firm Kuaishou Technology, which is backed by tech giant Tencent Holdings, has just launched a new app that is aimed at competing directly with ByteDance's short video app platform TikTok in international markets. Kuaishou currently also operates another short video app that competes with ByteDance's Douyin app in the Chinese market.
The new mobile app, called Snack Video, has just been rolled out and is now available on the Google Play app store for international users. Early users of the app have pointed out that Snack Video has quite a number of similar features as TikTok, albeit altered slightly.
Some of the tweaks that had been made to the app included a slightly shorter video length limit. Snack Video allows users to record short videos up to 57 seconds long, slightly shorter than TikTok's 60-second limit. However, apart from the label changes, some of Snack Video's features are essentially duplicates of what TikTok offers users.
Reviewers and some users have pointed out that that Snack Video's content recommendation algorithm and function is very similar to TikTok's "Discovery" feature. The app's ability to let users add friends from their phones and social media and its black background is also very similar.
ByteDance and Kuaishou are currently the two major players in the rapidly growing short video segment, which has ballooned to a massive 100 billion yuan market in China as of last year. The use of the apps developed by the two companies had recently exploded in popularity in China amid the shelter-in-place orders and lockdowns imposed by the Chinese government earlier in the year.
During the first quarter, Kuaishou revealed that it had over 300 million daily active users on its China-focused Kwai short video platform. Meanwhile, ByteDance had reported that it had about 400 million daily active users on its Douyin platform.
Outside of China, ByteDance has managed to corner the short video segment with its TikTok platform. Analysts have stated that Kuaishou may be trying to take some of the market shares away from ByteDance through the release of a foreign version of its Kwai app. Kuaishou did not immediately respond to questions about its new app's similarities to TikTok.
Analysts at consultancy firm iMedia Research stated that the two apps may be targeting different demographics. TikTok, which has become immensely popular aboard, is targeting most of the high-end crowd, while Kuaishou attracted typically lower-income and younger users. The firm also added that Kuaishou's new app will likely not pose a serious threat to ByteDance's dominance in the international market as it has already established TikTok as more than just a short video platform but also a strong social media phenomenon.
