Like that of TikTok fate remains evolving, its smaller rival Likee has been making waves around the world, garnering 150 million monthly active users as of this June.
That's according to the earnings report from Chinese internet company Joyy, which owns Likee. For comparison, TikTok had about 200 million daily active users in early 2020, a savvy investor told ProWellTech. This means its MAU will be much larger, and TikTok has seen explosive growth since the COVID-19 outbreak that has kept people at home. Even as a potential ban and forced sale loom in the United States, TikTok's growth has only moderated slightly.
Likee has something different to offer, as it allows influencers to easily earn from the virtual gifts they receive from fans, Ken (paywalled) pointedly noted. TikTok, on the other hand, prioritizes consumers of content.
"I think creators want to get paid and monetization helps," Adam Blacker, vice president of app analytics firm Apptopia, told ProWellTech.
geopolitics
Like TikTok, Likee is not immune to control over Chinese-rooted apps. India was Likee's largest market before the app was banned from the country along with TikTok and dozens of other Chinese-owned apps. Likee's sister app, Bigo Live, has also been shut down by the Indian government.
However, Joyy said she has shifted her focus from India to other markets by reducing sales and marketing spending in the region, so while the regional ban will have a short-term impact on user size, it "does not affect overall strategy. and monetization for Likee ", Joyy's chief financial officer Bing Jin said about the company's second-quarter analyst call.
In its second largest market, the United States, Likee is one of TikTok's fastest growing rivals. From early July to early August, Likee has amassed 7.25 million downloads, making Hollywood-backed Triller, TikTok's old rival Dubsmash and Vine sequel, Byte, Apptopia pale.
Likee is also growing rapidly in Russia and Indonesia. In anticipation of ongoing geopolitical risks, Likee is "Cooperate with various local governments" and "improve our local operations," Jin said.
Pioneer in live streaming
Joyy, a Nasdaq-listed company, remains little known outside its home market. Founded in 2005, Joyy popularized the virtual gift phenomenon in live streaming through her flagship site YY. The public can gift the influencers with virtual "flowers" and the like, which they can then convert into cash. YY's monetization model has been so successful that it has spawned live streaming rivals of all kinds. When the market saturated, Joyy moved overseas.
In 2016, Joyy's founder and CEO Li Xueling started Bigo in Singapore as a separate entity, so it wouldn't be subjected to the same investor pressure as a public company. The Bigo Live streaming app debuted in hopes of replicating YY's success and when short videos became all the rage, Bigo launched Likee. Between June 2019 and June 2020, Likee earned 70 million MAUs worldwide.
In June, Joyy as a whole reached 457 million mobile MAUs, 91% of which came from non-Chinese markets. When Bigo became a revenue generator, Joyy consolidated it on the balance sheet after a full acquisition last year.
Bigo's healthy growth overseas should mean trust for Joyy. But when Li was asked by local media if he wanted to fight TikTok for dominance, he said his company "won't be able to beat him." He went on to humbly remark that Zhang Yiming, the founder of the parent of TikTok ByteDance, "is the most forward-thinking person I've ever seen."
