China’s ByteDance-owned short video platform TikTok continues to expand its business scope, with TikTok’s payment business recently being officially named. At the same time, TikTok’s international version, TikTok, has introduced AI-generated virtual avatars and AI voice-over tools, making it easier for creators and brands to promote their advertisements.
On the 14th, the official website of the People’s Bank of China announced significant changes in non-bank payment institutions allowing Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology Co., Ltd. to change its company name to “Douyin Payment Technology Co., Ltd.” This signifies the successful renaming of Douyin’s payment business.
According to China Fund News, Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2012 and obtained the “Payment Business License” issued by the People’s Bank of China in 2014, becoming a licensed online payment enterprise. In August 2020, an enterprise related to Douyin, Tianjin Tongrong, completed the acquisition of Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology Co., Ltd., making Hezhong Yibao the main body of Douyin’s payment license.
In recent years, Douyin has been continuously expanding into the live e-commerce field. In October 2020, Douyin Mall officially launched, and in January 2021, Douyin Payment went online on the Douyin app, adding the “Douyin Payment” option for customer shopping settlements. With increased exposure to the payment gateway, Douyin Payment has become the mainstream payment method on Douyin Mall.
In April of this year, Tianjin Tongrong also planned to acquire 100% equity of Linked Commerce, a subsidiary of China’s listed company Hailian Jinhui. Linked Commerce holds a payment license issued by the People’s Bank of China, allowing it to engage in bank card acquiring, internet payments, and mobile phone payment services nationwide. This move is seen as Douyin’s attempt to complement its offline acquiring business permit.
Meanwhile, TikTok’s international version has actively expanded into the field of AI-generated content. On the 17th, it announced the addition of AI-generated virtual avatars and AI voice-over tools to its Symphony AI advertisement tool launched last month, aiming to help creators and brands create breakthrough TikTok content.
To help brands and creators elevate their creativity and content to new levels, TikTok has introduced two types of virtual avatars: pre-made avatars created by paid actors licensed for commercial use, allowing enterprises of various scales to choose avatars with different backgrounds, nationalities, and over 30 languages to add personalized content.
Custom avatars allow creators to use their own portraits to create multilingual avatars to expand their global influence and brand awareness. Brands can use their own brand IP, spokespersons, or collaborative creators to create custom avatars and easily collaborate with creators worldwide to localize their global marketing campaigns.
The AI voice-over tool, Symphony AI Dubbing, is a global translation tool that helps creators and brands overcome language barriers, expand content in multiple languages, and connect with global audiences. The tool can translate content into English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and 10 other languages, detect the language in the original video, transcribe, translate, and generate dubbed videos in the target language.
TikTok recently revealed that after the launch of Symphony, 61% of users made purchases directly on TikTok or after seeing an advertisement.