TikTok owner teams up with Chinese state media on blockchain venture

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Chinese internet giant ByteDance is venturing into blockchain technology, a new report has revealed. The company, which owns and operates popular video-sharing app TikTok, has partnered with a Chinese state-run media company on the blockchain venture.

Known as Pengpai Audiovisual Technology Co., the new company will be based in Jinan, a city in Eastern China. Aside from blockchain, the company will deal in several other areas including artificial intelligence, internet data services, software development services and more.

The company was formed on December 10 according to a report by Qichacha, a Chinese website dedicated to hosting business registration information. The report further reveals that ByteDance will own 49% of the company, which has a registered capital of 10 million yuan ($1.4 million).

ByteDance’s partner on the venture is Chinese media company Shanghai Dongfang Newspaper. The company is the operator of ThePaper.cn, one of China’s popular digital media outlets according to Bloomberg. The company owns 51% of the new firm and is majorly owned and controlled by the Shanghai United Media Group, which is in turn backed by the Shanghai local government.

“The joint venture will focus on partnership in the digital rights of short videos,” a ByteDance spokesperson stated according to the New York Times.

The venture by the Beijing-based company is significant. ByteDance is the biggest internet startup in the world. It owns TikTok, an application that has become wildly popular in recent years, attracting global pop stars, from Katy Perry to Arianna Grande. TikTok has become especially popular in the U.S., making history as the first Chinese app to take the top spot for most downloaded app.

ByteDance becomes the latest Chinese giant to venture into blockchain technology. Alibaba leads the pack, with a number of blockchain activities in intellectual property management, domain name management, privacy, supply chain management and more.

Gaming and social media giant Tencent has also invested a lot in blockchain, working on private projects as well as in partnership with the government. As CoinGeek reported, the company has developed a tool that is aiding the Chinese government to crack down on crypto scams. The company is also charged with formulating global standards for blockchain-based invoices.