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Why TikTok Succeeded Outside China and WeChat Didn’t
Article

Why TikTok Succeeded Outside China and WeChat Didn’t

DT Caijing, 2019

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Eye Opening
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Short-video app TikTok and social media app WeChat belong to Chinese companies Bytedance and Tencent, respectively. Both apps enjoy immense popularity at home in China and entered markets abroad with high ambitions. TikTok has taken a number of foreign markets by a storm. The number of users it attracted in the United States has the US government worried about the amount of US customer data that TikTok collects. Meanwhile, WeChat – the most widely used app in China – has made limited headway in other countries. Analyst Huang Yuankai of data research blog DT Caijing investigates why one app succeeded globally while the other one didn’t.

Take-Aways

  • Short-video app TikTok has done much better in foreign markets than social media app WeChat.
  • Moving one’s social network to a new app is costly for consumers, which made entering new markets difficult for WeChat. 
  • Compared with WeChat, TikTok has a more internationally acceptable design. 

About the Author

Huang Yuankai is an analyst and writer for DT Caijing, a data research blog created by business media platform China Business Network. 


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