ByteDance is suing Tencent: the Chinese technology companies are now fighting each other

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Douyin – the Chinese version of the short video app TikTok – subpoenaed Tencent (TCEHY) on Tuesday, alleging that the Shenzhen-based social media company has abused its ‘market dominance’ to defeat rivals.
Douyin, which, like TikTok, is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, has filed a lawsuit alleging Tencent’s WeChat and QQ messaging apps will ban their users from sharing content from Douyin for three years, the company said on Tuesday. a statement it published on its official WeChat account. .

While CNN Business has not seen the lawsuit filed in the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, several state media outlets, including the Beijing Daily, have reported that Douyin Tencent is asking for the content restrictions to be lifted and paid 90 million yuan ($ 14 million). to pay economic losses. and fees.

“We believe competition is better for consumers and promotes innovation,” a Douyin spokesperson said in a statement to CNN Business. “We have filed this lawsuit to protect our rights and those of our users.”

Tencent fired back, saying his own statement on WeChat Tuesday that it plans to sue ByteDance as well.

“The pertinent allegations made by ByteDance are purely false and malicious framing,” said Tencent. It accused Douyin of having it “Illegally obtained data from WeChat users” and violate consumer rights.

ByteDance and Tencent are two of the biggest players on Chinese social media. Tencent’s WeChat has more than 1.2 billion monthly active users, while the QQ app has nearly 700 million monthly active users. ByteDance’s Douyin doesn’t release monthly figures, but said last month it has an average of 600 million active users per day.

The two companies have been arguing for a while. Since 2018, they have regularly accused each other of unfair competition, a dispute that occasionally takes place in court. The Chinese media has even dubbed the spit the “Tou-Teng big fight”, a play on words using ByteDance’s news app “Toutiao” and Tencent’s Chinese name “Teng Xun”.

But the battle is now taking on new meaning and comes at a time of turmoil in China’s tech industry.

Last November, Chinese regulators pulled a highly anticipated IPO of Ant Group, Jack Ma’s financial subsidiary Alibaba. (BABA) They have since told the company to review its business and criticize driving rivals from the market.

Regulators have also issued new guidelines they believe are intended to prevent internet monopolies, and even started an investigation into Alibaba over antitrust issues.

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