ByteDance, the Beijing-based parent company of famous video-sharing app TikTok, has begun selling its Artificial-Intelligence technology to other companies. According to the Financial Times report, ByteDance has made technology-sharing deals with Chinese and non-Chinese companies as well.
ByteDance created a separate dedicated unit, “BytePlus,” in June with little or no sound. The BytePlus division of ByteDance aims to “provide intelligent platform services powered by industry-leading research in emerging technologies.” This revenue-enhancing project has already listed its client companies over the website in a restful manner. The list of customer companies reveals that BytePlus has garnered customers from all over the world, more interestingly from the U.S as well.
According to the data on its official site, among companies who did reach ByteDance earlier for the technology-sharing agreement are Goat — the US-based fashion-oriented app, WeGo — a Singapore-based travel booking site, and Chilibeli — an Indonesia-based eCommerce startup.
The Artificial-Intelligence algorithms have played a pivotal role in making TikTok a pioneering video-sharing app in today’s digital world. The videos recommendations in the #ForYou feed and real-time video effects are just a few examples of these AI-supported algorithms in the TikTok app. These features of the TikTok serve as its secret ingredient and also contributed to the app surpassing 100 million monthly users only in the US last year.
Besides the video-recommendation algorithm, BytePlus also provides other softwares on-offer. These softwares include automated translation of text and speech, real-time video effects, data analysis, and management tools. In addition, BytePlus also offers technology powered by computer vision that can detect 18 different points of the body/object from head to feet while the user is moving around or dancing in front of the camera.
FT also reported that BytePlus, the new division of ByteDance, has built its teams in Singapore, London, and Hong Kong. The recruits are mainly from the enterprises like Microsoft, and IBM as the LinkedIn profile of employees suggests. Tianyi He has been working with ByteDance for six years and has been listed as Head of BytePlus in Singapore.
As for now, ByteDance has not made any official statement on its Project BytePlus and its future mission.
A couple of weeks ago, TikTok also introduced a new exciting way for its creators to share more engaging and exciting content on their TikTok channels. The company called its new feature “TikTok Jump,” which would enable the users to link the third-party provider’s content in their videos. In 2018, TikTok had also become the number 1 app on the App Store. At that time, it also left behind major social networks YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat regarding the number of downloads.
