ByteDance Reportedly Developing A Clubhouse-Like App, While Xiaomi Launches China-Only MiTalk

The current popularity of Clubhouse is very apparent – to the point that major social media players such as Facebook and Twitter are introducing their own spin of the app’s invite-only chatting feature to their respective platforms. Not excluded from this equation are Chinese companies including TikTok owner ByteDance which, according to Reuters, is developing its own Clubhouse clone.

Individuals familiar with the matter told the news agency that the company’s unnamed app is in the early stages of development, but further details are still kept under wraps. One source said that discussions regarding TikTok and ByteDance on Clubhouse sparked interest in the genre from the Chinese company’s executives, including CEO Zhang Yiming. It is also not known if this upcoming app will be released globally or is intended to be a China exclusive. 

Other than ByteDance, Xiaomi had recently relaunched its China-only MiTalk app as a competitor to the US-made chatting platform. As expected, the app also offers chat rooms that require an invite in order to participate – a huge turn in direction from its original approach which mirrors regular chatting apps such as WeChat and WhatsApp.

The sudden (and inevitable) surge of Chinese companies wanting to replicate Clubhouse’s success and popularity with their own clones is interesting yet peculiar, especially in terms of privacy in China. As previously reported, the country recently cracked down on the US-made app and banned it outright as it was reportedly discovered that Chinese users were using its chat rooms to discuss subjects that are considered taboo and controversial.

The question remains: what are the steps that ByteDance and Xiaomi are required to take in order to prevent such scenarios from repeating on their own respective apps? And of course, there’s also the concern of chat logs and user data potentially being snooped upon by the Chinese government for the purpose of censorship.

ByteDance Sues Tencent; Seek US$14 Million Compensation For Content Blocking

ByteDance, the parent company of the popular social media app, TikTok, recently sued the Shenzen-based Tencent Holdings (Tencent). It is accusing its social media rival of actively blocking content from Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, on the latter’s own platforms, including WeChat and QQ.

The company’s lawsuit comes months after China introduced draft regulations, aimed at online and internet-based companies that engage in monopolistic behaviour. Also, this isn’t the first time ByteDance has taken Tencent to court in China either. According to Bloomberg, ByteDance has filed several lawsuits against its competitor, but this was the first time it was doing so under anti-monopoly grounds.

For the alleged blocking of its links, ByteDance is also seeking US$14 million (~RM56.7 million) in compensation from Tencent. That said and oddly enough, the company did clarify that it was also blocking certain links from WeChat and QQ. Namely, financial and health care-related content, stating that links from such content had a high probability of being scams or illegal tactics via third-party platforms.

At the time of writing, Tencent has not released an official statement regarding its rival lawsuit.