Visitors are seen at the booth of Bytedance Technology, which owns news aggregator app Jinri Toutiao and short video app Tik Tok, or Douyin, at the China International Software Expo in Beijing, China June 29, 2018.
PHOTO: REUTERS
If launched, the phone will come pre-loaded with many company’s apps like Douyin, which is a Chinese version of Tik Tok, messaging app Flipchat and a news app Jinri Toutiao. ByteDance is also looking forward to competing with giants like Apple and Spotify in music streaming service by launching its own version.
TikTok’s parent company set to launch music streaming service
“ByteDance’s latest project, the brainchild of founder Zhang Yiming, follows its acquisition of a number of patents from Smartisan, a Chinese phone-maker, and subsequent recruitment of some of its staff,” reported Financial Times. “Mr Zhang has long dreamt of a phone with ByteDance apps pre-installed, according to one person with knowledge of the secretive project.”
In the past, Tech giants like Facebook and Amazon have also tried to launch their own smartphones in order to lure more customers but, failed to do so along with Snapchat’s hardware incursion, Spectacles.
With the on-going trade war between US and China amid national security concerns, it might be difficult for ByteDance to tap into the American phone market. Tech giant, Huawei, has been banned by the US Department of Commerce, encouraging Microsoft and Google to cut ties with it also.
Negative impact of ‘Tiktok’
But, all is not lost for the ByteDance, as Tik Tok is extremely popular in the Indian market and in its home country where it has more than 500 million users. Only time will tell whether Yiming’s dream of launching a smartphone will see the light of the day.
This article originally appeared on Mashable.
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