ByteDance is a Chinese tech giant that has evolved into a multinational giant, with major operations in Europe, the United States, and other countries. ByteDance started as a mobile app and has since moved on to provide other related services. As of late 2020, the company had acquired an estimated market value of $118 billion — becoming one of the world’s most valuable startups, according to Forbes.
Beyond its stunning achievements in emerging markets such as China and India, ByteDance is now making headlines across other regions due to its numerous accomplishments in areas such as artificial intelligence, media streaming and social networking — making it no surprise why it was recently valued at more than three times Facebook’s worth.
The company has been introducing innovations regularly, from striking deals with major tech names such as Microsoft to expanding its content sharing capabilities based on market trends. In this guide, you will find some interesting facts about ByteDance’s evolving business strategy and what other changes its implementation globally.
ByteDance Adds Time Limit for Kids Under 14 on its Video App in China
To make its products more secure and suitable for younger audiences, ByteDance has made significant changes in recent months. The most significant is introducing a one-hour time limit for users under 14 on its video app in China. This is just one of the multiple changes that ByteDance has implemented, and in this article we will explore these changes and what they mean for the company’s future.
Time Limit for Kids Under 14
In light of growing concern about online safety, ByteDance recently imposed a 1 hour/day limit for users under 14. As a result, anyone aged 14 and below can only use the company’s applications for one hour daily. In addition, their accounts will be subject to further restrictions, requiring permission from a guardian to access content that may not be suitable.
This was one of the many changes announced by ByteDance to better protect young users’ safety on their platforms, including Douyin ( TikTok’s Chinese version) and Xigua Video. The tech giant also improved its content review system and prohibitions on gifting virtual currency and strengthened real-name registration systems on its platform. The company claims that these changes will ensure all content on these platforms conforms to the “socialist core values,” despite facing objection from many netizens renowned for their anti-censorship sentiment .
Content Censorship
In response to the controversy over content censorship, ByteDance has changed its content governance policies and practices. In August 2019, it announced a “Censorship of Forbidden Content” initiative as part of its commitment to “professionalising” content moderation on its platform. Since then, ByteDance has implemented further measures to strengthen its censorship.
This includes updating the criteria for what types of content should be removed from the platform, increasing transparency into its processes for moderating content (such as introducing a new system for reporting violations), tightening the controls around the creation of accounts and posts, and regularly updating its algorithms to better identify problematic content. Additionally, ByteDance has hired hundreds of additional human moderators to supplement its automated efforts.
At present, any video or post portraying illegal activities or violating Chinese laws is automatically taken down by ByteDance’s AI/algorithm system. In addition, posts that feature explicit violence or pornographic images are also barred from the platform. Furthermore, there is moderation on political topics such as Tibet independence and Taiwan-related issues where posts deemed harmful are blocked from circulation on Douyin and related platforms such as Jinri Toutiao (Today’s Headlines) and others powered by AI algorithms. Furthermore, posts on politically sensitive topics related to China which contain disinformation leading to social unrest can be also censored on Toutiao’s platforms if identified by AI/manual censors.
Parental Control
ByteDance has implemented several measures to limit the amount of time children can spend on their products and also provide parents with ways to monitor and control the content their children can access. With its latest update, ByteDance has added a ‘Parental Control’ feature that allows parents to select age limits for app usage, control when notifications are sent, and set boundaries around the topics their children can view. This feature is available within its popular Douyin and TikTok apps but is rolling out slowly.
Additionally, ByteDance recently updated its Terms of Service so that all users must be 16 or older to use its products. This comes in response to several controversial accounts on both TikTok and Doyin that took advantage of algorithms allowing them inappropriate access to younger users. ByteDance also recently added an HMHW rating system which requires all content creators to label their content by age appropriate levels denoted by the kids-friendly term “easy”, “middle” or “hard” based on language level, topic difficulty and level of violence being depicted.
Recently, ByteDance has enforced stricter supervision over fiction videos uploaded on Bilibili app. For fiction videos from Bilibili App ,the authors are required to first inspect all clips according to prescribed standards before uploading them; then qualified yet popular artists need to provide quality assurance by reviewing certain number of clips each quarter; lastly, experienced technologists check each clip while they are being uploaded onto Bilibili database with specialised AI algorithms before they are released into millions eyes around world.
Impact of Changes
ByteDance recently added a time limit for kids under 14 on its video app in China, which has had a major impact on how young people use their devices for entertainment and communication. Not only does this create a healthier online environment for the younger generation, but it also presents parents with the option of setting appropriate limits for their children.
But this is not the only change that the company has made. So let’s take a closer look at what other changes they have made.
Positive Impacts
ByteDance has made several positive changes that have impacted the technology industry. For instance, ByteDance recently launched a new venture to develop artificial intelligence (AI) that can automatically generate content for its news products. This innovation can revolutionise content delivery and reshape how news outlets operate. It also has been used in its online recruiting platform, Jobseek, which uses AI for optimised job matching and insights into applicants’ backgrounds.
Another positive change that ByteDance has made is the acquisition of musical streaming service Musically, which it had acquired with plans to use the app’s data-driven algorithm to improve its music recommendations engine. It also introduced a Connected Music feature that links users on diverse platforms like YouTube and Spotify. The result of these changes is improved user experience and an increasingly cost-efficient model for its music services.
ByteDance is also making strides in research programs such as Project X-Ray, which uses computer vision systems developed by engineers at company research labs to enable better image recognition tools designed to help classify images faster and with higher accuracy rates than previous methods did. These kinds of improvements also hold great potential implications in other areas such as autonomous driving and medical imaging applications where increased accuracy of computer vision systems would be beneficial. In addition, ByteDance continues to invest heavily in AI research technologies to advance how machines interact with humans within specific professions like finance or healthcare, for example.
Negative Impacts
The dramatic changes that ByteDance has made to its business could have negative impacts, both in the short-term and long-term. In particular, since ByteDance is a global company, changes made in its domestic market could also affect users in other countries.
In the short term, ByteDance’s changes may be felt by algorithm shifts and memes removed. These shifts may make some of the company’s products less user-friendly and enjoyable. It may also make it more difficult for content creators to succeed on the platform, or for new users to become aware of it.
In the longer term, there are also concerns that this type of top-down change could alienate users who have grown accustomed to certain trends or formats on these platforms such as popularising ‘challenges’ or ‘pranks’ etc., which then become part of mainstream culture even beyond ByteDance’s platforms like TikTok, Douyin (Chinese version), and TopBuzz (Indian version). Furthermore they could reduce user engagement which might be reflected in lower revenue growth or entry barrier being too high – both areas where ByteDance is already competing against powerhouse tech giants like Facebook Inc and Google.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ByteDance has made many changes designed to increase its competitive edge. These include focusing on local markets by creating Douyin and TikTok, improving the user experience with better AI technology, and investing heavily in video content with the acquisition of leading OTT players. Additionally, it has made strategic investments in tech startups to diversify its portfolio and strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities.
ByteDance is also investing heavily in research and development in natural language processing and computer vision to stay ahead of competitors. The company is also involved in several charitable activities such as donations for education and disaster relief. In addition, ByteDance has acquired multiple companies to boost its portfolio of products across various sectors such as newsfeeds, music streaming, e-commerce platforms, and more.
Although ByteDance’s rapid growth has been impressive over the last few years, it remains to be seen how successfully it can continue to evolve as new market challenges emerge. But, for now at least, ByteDance remains one of the leading technology firms globally due to its unique approach and open innovation model that stands out from its peers.
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