According to sources, the owner of TikTok ByteDance is working on an app similar to Clubhouse for the China-based users. Following the great success of Clubhouse which is a US-based audio messaging platform, many companies have started emulating the same app for their area.
At the beginning of February, the Clubhouse was restricted to Chinese users. After that, ByteDance which is the parent company of TikTok decided to launch its app which works the same as the Clubhouse. As a result of this decision, several relevant apps were released last month and the trend continues to go up every month. Users on Clubhouse had increased their involvement in discussions on important issues such as Xinjiang detention centers and the freedom of Hong Kong.
Among the new features, Xiaomi redesigned the Mi Talk app into a direct-invite audio platform aimed at professionals after they screened Clubhouse users into sensitive issues.
According to two unnamed sources who were not allowed to report to the media and refused to comment on them, ByteDance decided to launch an app but the plans are still going ahead and working to a low level . As reported by some source, Clubhouse users have been spotted discussing ByteDance and TikTok which are attracting attention among ByteDance officials, including CEO Zhang Yiming. ByteDance declined to talk about this.
Clubhouse has recently gained popularity as it can accommodate as many as 8000 people in a single chat room and has been the center of debate between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. They both emphasized the growing values in audio chat services.
Claims like Clubhouse in China tend to accept Chinese signals to satisfy the government’s scrutiny and control.
The Zhiya app on the Nasdaq list is a similar example. It is a 2013 release where users only used video games or participated in singing songs. The app allows users to register using their real names, which Lizhi CEO Marco Lai believes is important in China. The organization also hires people to listen and use technologies to filter out unusable material such as violence or political issues. In 2019, Chinese regulators blocked the app for a while, but Lizhi was able to reinvent it after making the necessary changes.
According to Lai at Lizhi, there are plenty of audio chat rooms where people can express their opinions. He also explained that people in China are taught to remain silent in public which is why adults do not feel comfortable expressing their opinion in public.
In Duihuaba, Inke is released this month. It was famous for its live streaming feature but after two weeks it was unexpectedly removed, announcing that further changes were needed without giving further details.
Photo: Imaginechina / AP
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