ByteDance Trial Paywall Feature At Douyin For Content Creator

Douyin, TikTok in China (photo: twitter @X_Douyin)

JAKARTA - TikTok owner ByteDance is testing a paywall feature for content creators on its short video platform, Douyin, in China. This was revealed by a source familiar with the matter, when the company was looking for new ways to benefit from its very popular app.

According to the source, the Chinese internet giant recently began allowing some content creators with more than 100,000 followers to put part of their video behind paywall on Douyin, the TikTok's brother app in China.

"Users then have to pay to watch the entire video," the source said. Meanwhile, ByteDance did not respond to requests for comment from the media on the report.

Paywall is the latest feature in a long list of features implemented by ByteDance to monetize its Douyin app, which now has more than 800 million users. Many of the new features in Douyin are also appearing on TikTok.

Chinese media first reported on this new feature. Sina local media showed screenshots of a notification window in Douyin informing content creators that ByteDance is entitled to 30% of their revenue as commissions.

According to Sina, content creators can set their own prices for their videos without ByteDance's intervention. Another Chinese media, Jiupai News, reports that some content creators have started charging 12 yuan (IDR 25 thousand) for 44 minutes of video on the platform.

Douyin already has a feature that charges users to watch professionally created events on the platform