Leading Chinese internet company ByteDance, Inc., which has more than 600 million users on its flagship domestic mobile product, Toutiao, today announced a global licensing deal with Studio71, the media company and multichannel network of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group. The content, which will be subtitled into Mandarin Chinese, will also be featured on the global app, TopBuzz, among other ByteDance, Inc. properties.
The deal brings content from top YouTube creators to ByteDance's entertainment video platforms. Studio71’s roster of creators includes Vitaly Zdorovetskiy (9.2M subscribers), Epic Meal Time (7M subscribers), Matthew Santoro (5.6M subscribers), Tana Mongeau (2M subscribers), and Logan Paul(13M FB followers).
“We turned to Studio71 for content because they can deliver some of the most exciting creators in the world to our TopBuzzand Toutiao app platforms,” said Tina Zhao, SVP of ByteDance Inc. “They understand the millennial audience and have a track record for producing quality premium content.”
ByteDance Inc, on September 20, 2016, announced they would allocate, within the next 12 months, $150 million dollars to fund creators in creating high-quality short-form content on its global platform.
“China is a very important market for our creators, so the ability to extend their reach via China’s leading news and entertainment content app, Toutiao, and global app TopBuzz is an exciting opportunity. It will enable them to reach both the domestic Chinese audience as well as the millions who live abroad,” said Adam Boorstin, EVP of Global Digital Distribution at Studio71.
Founded in 2012 by CEO Zhang Yiming, ByteDance Inc. (known as Jinri Toutiao in China) has quickly become one of the world’s leading high-tech internet companies with 600 million users on its flagship mobile product, Toutiao. With over 66 million daily active users and over 76 minutes of time spent per user daily, Toutiao has consistently been China’s go-to news & entertainment content app.
Headquartered in Beijing with over 2,500 employees, Bytedance has begun its global expansion with offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and New York, and other high-growth regions globally.
ByteDance Inc. is funded by some of the world’s most prestigious investors including Sequoia Capital, and Digital Sky Technologies (investors of Facebook, Apple, Google, Instagram, Youtube, etc.).
