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Jan. 17 (NBD) – ByteDance, parent company of information platform Jinri Toutiao and short video platform TikTok (known as Douyin in China), told investors the revenue for 2018 is expected to stand at 50-55 billion yuan (7.4-8.1 billion U.S. dollars), which is at the bottom of the company's target range, people familiar with the matter said to Bloomberg, asking not to be named since "the matter is private".

It will be the first time the Chinese tech upstart has not registered revenues more than expected, because it delayed monetizing new functions and China's slowing economy affected advertisement budget, the source said. 

With a raft of services platforms such as Jinri Toutiao, TikTok, and Xigua Video, ByteDance boasts 240 million active users, leading to a sharp jump of the tech unicorn's valuation. As of October last year, ByteDance was rumored to hit valuation of 75 billion U.S. dollars in the pre-IPO financing round. According to an insider from TikTok, the short video platform alone, with 200 million daily active users, is valued at 30 billion U.S. dollars.

However, ByteDance also encountered obstacles last year. Domestic strict regulations were imposed on Jinri Toutiao's contents due to vulgarity, pornography and clickbait. TikTok was also plagued by the same problem, with its advertising business regulated because of disrespect for heroes and martyrs. Additionally, Neihan Duanzi, another app of ByteDance, was compelled to be shut down for good due to vulgar contents.

These regulatory actions shackled these platforms in providing accurately targeted contents to users based on their preferences, and curbed the revenue from advertisements, causing a loss of users and clients for advertising. 

Big data service provider QuestMobile's report released in October last year revealed the increase of mobile Internet users in China is slowing down, with the increase rate for the fisrt 9 months of 2018 dropping by over 50 percent year over year, signaling the market had reached a saturation point.

Under such circumstances, the competition among players in the mobile Internet battlefield is becoming increasingly fierce and all top players are facing challenges posted by the cut-throat rivalry. 

In the coming future, mobile Internet companies will fight for the remaining user increment, and more importantly, retain the existing users and improve their stickiness.

 

Email: wenqiao@nbd.com.cn

Editor: Wen Qiao