ByteDance’s Douyin Launches Video App Qingtao

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok owned by ByteDance, quietly launched an application called “Qingtao,” according to a report by Tech Planet on March 20. The introduction shows that Qingtao is a video platform for young people with a focus on interest and knowledge sharing. The app has recently updated to version 1.0.4.

At present, this app has a simple interface without ads, and can link directly with Douyin. Its main contents include technology, science, trendy sports, culture and art, among others.

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Qingtao mainly focuses on medium and long videos which complement Douyin’s shorter videos. The industry roughly divides videos into three categories: short videos within 1 minute, medium videos within 1-30 minutes and long videos over 30 minutes. However, the standard is not necessarily so fixed. For example, compared with Douyin’s 15-second short videos, the 15-minute videos are regarded as long videos.

Qingtao’s content is arranged in double rolls, with a similar interface and content style to Bilibili, another popular Chinese video platform.

According to the “2022 Knowledge Data Report” released by Douyin in December last year, the number of knowledge-sharing works published on Douyin increased by 35.4%, and the number of live-streaming in colleges and universities increased by 46% to 21,103. The number of published knowledge-sharing works increased by 35.4%. From January to October, 2022, the number of published knowledge-sharing works on Douyin increased by 35.4%, among which the number of published graphic content related to knowledge-sharing increased by 167%. The report shows that Douyin’s knowledge content is continuing to grow.

In other words, Douyin’s knowledge sharing videos are experiencing rapid development, and its users are becoming more and more active in watching and sharing knowledge content.

In fact, Douyin has been increasing its investment in medium and long videos. Xigua Video, a subsidiary of Douyin, previously launched a promotional campaign and provided 2 billion yuan ($290.86 million) to support high-quality medium and long video creation, and then launched related apps.

In addition to Douyin and Bilibili, other Chinese Internet companies such as Weibo, WeChat, Baidu and Zhihu have also joined the battle. For instance, in July 2020, Weibo launched the WeChat Channel Plan, with 500 million yuan to support creators.