Its powerful algorithm became the foundation for TikTok and is key to its global success.īut the two platforms, similar on the surface, play by starkly different rules. Instead, there’s a different version of TikTok - a sister app called Douyin.īoth are owned by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance, but Douyin launched before TikTok and became a viral sensation in China.
TikTok is fighting to stay alive in the United States as pressure builds in Washington to ban the app if its Chinese owners don’t sell the company.īut the wildly popular platform, developed with homegrown Chinese technology, isn’t accessible in China.
