As TikTok’s Growth Slows, a Chinese Rival Gains Ground

ByteDance, the Chinese developer of TikTok, the worldwide hit downloaded more than a billion times, was the first Chinese company to challenge Facebook and Snap on the global stage. But now, ByteDance is facing a Chinese challenger of its own, a short-form video-sharing app called Likee.

Launched two years ago and now owned by Nasdaq-listed YY Inc., Likee has quickly caught fire, becoming the world’s second most popular short video app after TikTok. Likee now has 81 million monthly active users, a nearly 400% increase from a year earlier, the company said in August. Much of Likee’s growth has come from India, where two-thirds of the app’s users reside, The Information has learned. The app also has caught on in Brazil and in Southeast Asia.