A symbol of TikTok (douyin) is pictured in The Place shopping mall at dusk on August 22, 2020 in Beijing, China.
VCG | Visual China Group | Getty Images
GUANGZHOU, China – ByteDance has launched a new payment service in Douyin, the Chinese version of the short video sharing app TikTok.
Douyin users can select Douyin Pay to make purchases on the short video app. Creators usually sell items or goods related to their content.
“The establishment of Douyin Pay … is intended to complement the existing main payment options and ultimately improve the user experience on Douyin,” ByteDance said in a statement. ByteDance owns both Douyin and TikTok.
In fact, Douyin already offers payment options from Alipay from Alibaba subsidiary Ant Group and WeChat Pay from Tencent, the two dominant mobile payment apps in China.
Alipay and WeChat Pay together account for more than 90% of the Chinese mobile payments market, according to iResearch.
Both payment services are available in apps, but also in physical stores where customers can scan barcodes to purchase items. This is different from Douyin Pay, which is only available in the Douyin app.
Douyin’s payment system is operated by Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology, a company that ByteDance bought around two years ago. Users need a Chinese bank account to use Douyin Pay.
The latest step towards e-commerce and financial technology or fintech underlines ByteDance’s desire to expand beyond social networks. This included forays into mobile gaming, a search engine, and streaming music.
