2019 was TikTok’s year, and its owner, Bytedance, is leaving no stone unturned to capitalize on the short-form video app’s soaring popularity across the globe. After announcing a smartphone earlier this month, the Chinese internet startup is now reportedly gearing up to launch a music streaming service in a string of emerging markets.
A new report The Financial Times suggests Bytedance will announce a new music streaming app next month in a bunch of countries including India, Brazil, and Indonesia. The subscription will likely be paid, however, it will be priced competitively and may undercut incumbents such as Spotify and Amazon Music.
Sources tell FT that Bytedance is still in the process of negotiating terms with music labels such as Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music to secure licensing deals. Spotify, during its recent India launch, especially had a hard time with Warner Music and the dispute has yet to settle leaving a giant catalog hole in the streaming app’s Indian version.
As one would expect, Bytedance’s streaming service will offer features that promote and plug directly with TikTok. FT says users will have the ability to look up viral videos right on the music app and sync the audio with whatever music they’re listening to.
The launch was first rumored way back in April and it’s clear Bytedance is aiming to unveil the service before the year ends. Today, TikTok has over 1.5 billion downloads and as of January, the app was hosting a billion monthly active users.
Bytedance could take advantage of TikTok’s success to push its new service in the crowded music streaming market. In 2019, nearly every music streaming app has made its way to India. However, new entrants like YouTube Music and Spotify are still struggling with Gaana and Apple Music both accounting for about half of the market.
In addition to an in-house music streaming service, Bytedance is also looking to enter the search engine and instant messaging markets. It remains to be seen, though, whether these arms will be able to go viral on the back of TikTok’s exponential growth.
You just opened X and started typing your thoughts. Imagine the jump scare when a hand suddenly pops up on your screen, pointing at the promote button. It doesn’t say a word and simply points. For a growing number of X users, this isn’t a made-up scenario but something they have been seeing since yesterday, and very few of them are amused.
Most of us have learned to tune out the usual in-app upsells, whether it’s a glowing upgrade banner or a pop-up about a premium plan. A floating hand hovering over your draft is much harder to ignore, and that’s probably the whole point.
Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.
What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?