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Oct. 25 (NBD) – Video creating and sharing platform Douyin's parent company ByteDance was reported on Wednesday to have completed its Pre-IPO financing round, which valued the company at 75 billion U.S. dollars.

Softbank (OTCMKTS: SFTBY), Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (NYSE: KKR), General Atlantic, Primavera Capital, and Alibaba-related Yunfeng Capital joined the financing, reports said. The total investments still remain unclear. Both ByteDance and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) have declined to comment.

ByteDance will be the third largest internet firm following Ant Financial and Uber in the primary market after this round of financing. The emerging tech force's rise should mostly be accredited to Douyin's boom in 2018.

According to a report released in August by mobile cloud computing service provider Haima Cloud and omni-marketing data and technology solution provider Miaozhen Systems, Douyin boasted 150 million daily active users (DAU) and 300 million monthly active users in China this year. After it integrated with Musically and TikTok in August, its global MAUs exceeded 500 million. The large user scale of Douyin even enables ByteDance to outpace Alibaba in terms of DAU, second only to Tencent (OTCMKTS: TCEHY).

Douyin's vigor also highlights great potentials in the short video sector. Statistics from data provider QuestMobile showed the number of China's short video users surpassed 410 million in 2017, a year-over-year increase of 116.5 percent. Up to July this year, MAUs for short video apps have totaled 508 million, accounting for 46 percent of the total of China's internet users. The daily average time users spend on short video platforms was registered at about one hour.

The short video industry is now mostly acknowledged as a battleground for ByteDance system with Douyin as the representative and Tencent system with Kuaishou as the representative.

QuestMobile revealed Kuaishou, with 204 million MAU, took the lead in the sector in 2017. But this year saw a big difference. Official statistics showed Douyin's DAU outnumbered that of Kuaishou with 150 million in June this year. The rising star is even expected to surmount Kuaishou in MAU to be the leader in the second half of 2018. 

As Douyin is rocketing up, the other two short video platforms Ixigua and Huoshan from ByteDance are also seeking grounds in this sector. And Tencent is paving road for Weishi, Yintu, and Yoo, to brave the challenge posted by its counterparts.

At the same time, other short video platforms like Weibo-backed Miaopai, female-oriented Meipai, and shopping service provider Taobao's Luke are also eyeing the big cake in the thriving sector.

However, gaining a foothold is not that easy. This year the market has seen Youku's Dianliu retreated from the battleground and Inke gave up recruiting short video KOLs.

In the future, wars among tech titans will continue, with few chances left for late-comers.

Email: wenqiao@nbd.com.cn