Douyin Unveils Video-chat Function Targeting Young Users, Depicting ByteDance’s Big Picture of Social Media

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok backed by ByteDance, recently introduced a new function allowing users to have video chats after they connect with each other, according to Tach Planet.

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Douyin has long been stepping up efforts to attract young users with not only its viral short videos but also the social functions it provides. The new function was sequentially released weeks after its internal test of random matches for video-chats on April 7 and its launch of voice-chats in March 2020.

There are currently two ways to make a video-chat on Douyin’s platform. One requires users to connect before calling and the other makes it possible for users to directly have a video call to Douyin via Duoshan, a Snapchat-like application developed by ByteDance, if they are already friends on Duoshan.

Tech Planet reported that the new video-chat function seems be designed to meet young users’ demands as it features a beauty camera and other mini-games to help them actively interact with each other.

Industry analysts said that Douyin’s frequent moves to introduce new functions aim to transition the app from a short video platform to a nationally-used social media platform like Tencent‘s Wechat.