ByteDance, proprietor of the worldwide hit short-video app TikTok, has shut down its artificial-intelligence-based information aggregator TopBuzz, one of many firm’s earliest merchandise aimed on the international stage.
“We’re happy with the work that we achieved with TopBuzz, however (we) have decided that different areas of the enterprise needs to be our precedence going ahead,” ByteDance stated in an announcement despatched to Reuters on Friday.
The closure of TopBuzz underlines how ByteDance’s strikes into worldwide markets haven’t been completely easy despite TikTok’s success.
Launched in 2015, TopBuzz was the abroad equal of Chinese language information aggregator Jinri Toutiao, that means “Immediately’s Headlines”, which was certainly one of Beijing-based ByteDance’s first successes. The app recommends personalised information articles to customers with totally different pursuits primarily based on its AI-driven algorithms.
Nevertheless, TopBuzz was not as widespread because the later TikTok app.
TopBuzz’s downloads declined to 1.2 million within the first half of 2019 from 7 million in all of 2018 on the App Store and Google Play mixed, in response to researcher Sensor Tower. TikTok had 345.2 million downloads within the first half of 2019.
TopBuzz started shrinking its operations final 12 months, in response to two sources accustomed to the matter. The app used to have operations in a number of languages together with Spanish and Portuguese, one of many sources stated. However now its web site solely exhibits English and Japanese variations.
ByteDance is presently below a US nationwide safety inquiry into TikTok’s dealing with of consumer information, and in addition dealing with tightened scrutiny from regulators around the globe.
TopBuzz’s tepid efficiency has not stopped Chinese language entrepreneurs from beginning international information apps.
Information Break, based by Yahoo alumnus Zheng Zhaohui in 2015 and backed by Chinese language traders, was ranked because the No. 1 information and journal app on Google Play within the US by utilization over the previous 28 days, adopted by Twitter and Reddit, in response to app efficiency tracker SimilarWeb.
© Thomson Reuters 2020
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