While an official announcement is still not forthcoming, reports from unnamed insiders suggest that the app has been showcased to music industry executives.
TikTok and Douyin, its Chinese equivalent, has been downloaded over 500 million times, and while the new app isn’t named after them, ByteDance will attempt to turn some of their audiences into paying customers, according to Bloomberg.
It is said that while the app has so far failed to make agreements with the big three music industry rights holders in Warner, Sony and Universal, reports say the company has already secured rights from T-Series and Times Music who make up two of India’s largest labels.
As such, ByteDance will seemingly take a presence in the emerging Asian, African and Middle Eastern markets, which so far only account for around 10% of Spotify’s customer base despite being home to a majority of the world’s population.
Initial evaluations has ByteDance worth more than $75 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Find out more about ByteDance here.
