What’s new: Users on Douyin, the Chinese cousin of TikTok, will soon be able to create and publish short videos based on Tencent’s copyrighted clips, a landmark change in a market where the internet giants once worked hard to close off their platforms to rivals’ users.
ByteDance Inc.-owned Douyin announced Friday that it has received a request from Tencent to connect the tech giant’s content service platform with its own platform, according to a Friday post (link in Chinese) by the short video app. Linking the two platforms will allow Douyin users to edit Tencent’s copyrighted films and TV shows to create their own videos.
Douyin offered no timetable for the change.
Tencent Holdings Ltd. told Caixin that it is currently getting in touch with many other third-party platforms to offer them access to its copyrighted content.
Background: In August, Douyin took down thousands of user-generated clips after the Shenzhen-based tech titan accused it in a lawsuit of violating its copyright on a Tencent Video-streamed crime drama. In the suit, Tencent demanded Douyin pay it 100 million yuan ($15.4 million) in damages.
suspected of violating the copyright on a Tencent Video-streamed crime drama after the Shenzhen-based tech titan filed a lawsuit demanding that Douyin pay it 100 million yuan ($15.4 million) in damages.
A month later, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology urged Chinese internet firms to stop blocking each other’s links — the so-called “walled gardens” strategy that they used to protect their own digital ecosystems.
Companies like Tencent and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. had long complained about how the other employed such link-blocking tactics.
Read more Cover Story: China’s Assault on Big Tech’s ‘Walled Gardens’
Contact reporter Manyun Zou (manyunzou@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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