Douyin’s parent company, ByteDance, has become a full-fledged rival for Alibaba & Tencent!

Douyin’s parent company, ByteDance, has become a full-fledged rival for Alibaba & Tencent!

Douyin recently announced that it’s cutting off connections to third-party sellers (eg. Tmall, JD.com) and is acquiring payments company “UIPay.”

These moves address two important gaps in its portfolio, clearing the way for ByteDance, to play a key role in; (1)ecommerce and (2)payments (two areas it was lagging behind).

This move will cause concern for both Alibaba and Tencent:

- Douyin has already eclipsed Weibo as the platform for audience discovery, KOLs etc
- Mini-programs and payments on Douyin may limit the flow of traffic to WeChat
- Douyin may become the key livestream selling platform (edging out Tmall Live)


That said:

- Tmall is still THE focal point for ecommerce
(know what you want to buy…go to Tmall)

- WeChat is still THE key social hub
(want to connect with friends, brands…go to WeChat)