Without Google, China’s dominant search engine is Baidu with nearly two-thirds of the market. Now ByteDance, the owner of the viral short video app TikTok, wants a piece of the pie. The company is quietly testing a new search app that’s available for download on some Chinese Android app stores.
Toutiao Search appears to be an app version of its existing search engine that launched last August. It brings up search results from the company’s popular Toutiao news app and videos from its live-streaming app Xigua and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
While the rest of the world might frequently rely on search engines to find what they want, many in China also rely on WeChat -- the all-purpose social app that carries a trove of exclusive content from more than 10 million creators. Critics question whether ByteDance can make a dent in the market, but some analysts say this latest endeavor helps it expand its digital ecosystem.