ByteDance had begun selling the short video-making app’s AI technology to other companies, including in India, where the app is banned.
China-based ByteDance, the parent company of the short-video-making app TikTok, is exiting the edtech business in India. Following the ban on TikTok last year, ByteDance now operates Snapsolve, a learning app, and Resso, a music streaming platform in the country.
“ByteDance is shutting down its edtech business in India,” according to a TechCrunch report citing sources.
According to the report, “the edtech division employed over three dozen people in India,” and “most of the employees, if not all, are being let go.”
SnapSolve is a doubt-solving app providing instant solutions to math, physics, chemistry, biology and science doubts and NCERT book questions. Similar to Vedantu, Byju’s, Doubtnut, Quesgo, Snapsolve is a free learning app that insists on building your unique learning experience,” reads its description on Google Play Store.
In the remote learning era, the Indian online edtech space is booming, with several new platforms receiving significant funding. The Indian government banned several Chinese-developed apps, including TikTok, in 2020, due to concerns that they were engaging in activities that threatened the country’s national security and defence.
This year, reports surfaced that ByteDance had begun selling the short video-making app’s AI technology to other companies, including in India, where the app is banned.
According to a Financial Times report, the company has launched a new division called BytePlus, which is selling TikTok AI to companies such as India-based social gaming platform GamesApp, US fashion app Goat, Singapore travel site WeGo, and Indonesian shopping app Chilibeli.
Source: Business World
