You may have heard of TikTok, a massively popular app which lets users record themselves lip-syncing to songs, dialogues from movies, etc. It was recently reported that the company behind TikTok, ByteDance, is developing its own Spotify rival. A new report claims that it may even be making a smartphone as well.
The Financial Times reports that ByteDance is making its own smartphone. As you’d expect, the phone will come with many of ByteDance’s apps pre-installed. The apps will obviously include TikTok, news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, and most likely the streaming service that ByteDance is reportedly working on.
The scribe mentions that ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming has “long dreamt” of building a smartphone that comes with the company’s apps right out of the box. It’s pertinent to note that ByteDance, a company based in Beijing, did acquire a phone maker called Smartisan a few months ago. The deal gave it the company’s patent portfolio and it even hired some of Smartisan’s employees.
It’s unclear right now what the intended market for this phone will be, what it will look like, and what the specs and specs might be. Given the sheer popularity of TikTok and ByteDance’s other services in China and in the region, it wouldn’t be surprising if Asia remains a primary focus with this new initiative as well.
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