TikTok’s owner ByteDance has confirmed plans to produce smartphones after entering into a partnership with device-maker Smartisan Technology.
Smartisan Technology was planning to make smartphone before the deal, and has been in development for seven months now, reported Reuters.
The Chinese company’s plans to go beyond news and internet sensation apps became apparent when it began investing in other sectors. According to media reports in July, ByteDance has hired several staff from JukeDeck, a London-based startup, which specialises in AI-generated music.
The company was earlier reported to be working on a smartphone, which would come pre-loaded with its own apps, according to a report by Financial Times.
Its most popular app, TikTok, allows users to make short videos. Known as Douyin in China, it has more than 300 million monthly users in the country, and ByteDance currently competes with the likes of Baidu and Tencent.
And in India, TikTok topped the list of the most downloaded apps, according to a report by App Annie. It saw 88.6 million new users in the Q1 of 2019. After wooing its users in India, the app is already available in 10 Indian languages.
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