Over allegations of interfering with fair competition, ByteDance, the company that owns Tik Tok, is suing Tencent, the company that owns WeChat and QQ.
The mainland Chinese version of Tik Tok, known as Douyin, is a popular video app with over 600 million daily users. WeChat is a social media and mobile payment platform that is used throughout China and the world. Both Tencent and ByteDance are entertainment giants, but recent moves have spurred on allegations that Tencent is violating China’s antitrust laws, hence the lawsuit.
Antitrust laws are put in place to encourage fair competition. ByteDance argues that WeChat’s restriction of Douyin content on their platform violates these laws because it manipulates competition in an unfair way. WeChat also has a video function, and both companies are vying to capture market holds from each other.
Tencent has denied all the allegations and vows to countersue.