Paiduidao

2022: Social network launch

At the end of January 2022, ByteDance announced the launch of a social network in mateverse format, whose users will be able to interact in the virtual community through avatars.

The functions of the application called Paiduidao, which means "party island," quite comply with the rules characteristic of the metaverse, but company representatives said that the application "has nothing to do with the metaverse." By the end of January 2022, access to Paiduidao is provided through an invitation system.

The owner of the TikTok launched the social network Paiduidao in metaverse format

The application, developed by ByteDance 's subsidiary, Beijing Shi SoundWu Xian Technology, is available in iOS and Android app stores in China, but a special invitation is required to fully access the application.

Paiduidao marks ByteDance 's last attempt to make a breakthrough in the Chinese social media market and challenge the Tencent Holdings WeChat app, which is installed on almost every smartphone in the country.

Previous ByteDance efforts in the field of social networks have not yielded the expected results. For example, in 2021, the company closed Feiliao, which was launched as a messenger in 2019 and is known worldwide as Flipchat. Also, there is no longer a platform for sharing photos of Xintu, similar to Instagram.

The acquisition of the ByteDance unicorn Beijing company, Pico Interactive which specializes in solutions in the field, in virtual reality August 2021 was widely interpreted as a step towards the metaverse.

However, the head of the department of products and strategy ByteDance Alex Zhu noted then that the deal is associated with the company's recognition of the value of virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) technologies, and not with the metaverse.^[1]

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