ByteDance Shuts Down the Development of Its Smartphones

by Noah Harris

In 2019, the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns the popular TikTok service, announced plans to develop its own smartphone. As planned, it should have had a proprietary video service and other applications of the company preinstalled, including a news aggregator and games.

TikTok Reached a New Licensing Agreement With Sony Music
TikTok and Sony Music Entertainment have reached a licensing deal. Now users will be able to legally select and enjoy millions of songs of any genre, from classic hits to new releases.
The Internet ProtocolKay Lee

Analysts believed that the development of ByteDance's own smartphones was unlikely to be successful: similar projects of Amazon and Facebook failed. Experts pointed out that there is no place for such devices in the mass market, and ByteDance itself has no experience in developing devices, as well as established channels for selling its gadgets.

House Democrats Prepared Big Changes for Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google
Congress found that Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google use their monopoly power, so it recommends to spin off or separate parts of their businesses or make it harder for them to buy smaller companies.
The Internet ProtocolIvan Tkachenko

Although the Chinese company acquired several patents of the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Smartisan and lured away several of its employees, the idea of creating its own smartphone was abandoned.

As noted, the main reason for the project's cancellation was the relatively low popularity of Smartisan devices, which are sold only online. Besides, sources point to problems with the supply of components for the brand's devices as negative factors, which affects their profitability. Ultimately, ByteDance decided to start developing devices for education which are increasingly in high demand now.