ByteDance, owner of short video sharing platform services Douyin (China) and TikTok (U.S.), has reportedly launched a payment service for the 600 million users of the Douyin platform.
Douyin Pay enables users to buy virtual gifts on the platform, according to a Reuters report. Douyin users have been using rival payment services from Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay. Douyin is the main revenue generator for ByteDance. It started selling merchandise online in 2017 and currently has millions of shoppers.
ByteDance’s move into domestic Chinese mobile payments had been expected for several months after the company obtained an online payments license as a result of its acquisition of third-party payment service UIPay, as reported by the South China Morning Post. ByteDance bought UIPay’s operator, Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology Co., with an ownership change effective date of Aug. 28, 2020.
ByteDance has been under pressure as former President Trump sought to ban the company’s U.S. video sharing app, TikTok, unless it were sold to an American company due to data privacy concerns. In December, TikTok announced it would launch shoppable livestreams, with its initial partner being Walmart.
The challenge to Alipay comes at a time when Chinese regulators forced its parent company, Ant Group, to delay a $35 billion IPO that was to be listed on Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges. Regulators are forcing Ant Group chief Jack Ma to reshape his empire.
Ant Group reported that its Alipay service has 1.3 billion users worldwide, although this counts customers from its mobile wallet partners as well. Tencent Holdings said in November in releasing its third-quarter results that it had 1.21 billion users on its WeChat platform.
