ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, is reportedly working on its own smartphone.
What we know: The phone would come with preloaded ByteDance apps, which includes TikTok, chat app Flipchat, video-messaging app Duoshan, Slack-like work messaging app Lark and news aggregator Jinri Toutiao. Over the weekend, rumors broke that ByteDance is planning to launch a music streaming service. The company also confirmed it made a deal with phone maker Smartisan earlier this year — now we know why.
ByteDance isn't the first company to make smartphones as a growth hack. Selfie app maker Meitu also builds smartphones pre-loaded with photo editing apps, and recently sold this arm of its business to Xiaomi. Amazon tried this with its Fire Phone (launched in 2014) and Facebook with 'Home' (launched in 2013). Both companies have since discontinued these products.
Ultimately, it's pretty easy (and cheap) to download any app you want on say, an iPhone, without buying a smartphone preloaded with a suite of apps.
On a related note, we have seen a ton of cool new smartphones launch in the past year if you are thinking of shaking things up. Some to check out:
📱 Palm is a tiny smartphone that fits in your palm
📱 Blackview is a super rugged smartphone
📱 Redmi Go is a $65 smartphone from Xiaomi
📱 Huawei P30 is a photography-centric smartphone
📱Samsung Galaxy Fold is a foldable smart phone
We’ll keep you posted when the “TikTok smartphone” launches. Until then, send us your best Lil Nas X lip sync videos. 😉
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