ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, may be keeping an eye on user dissatisfaction at competitor Instagram. The company this Wednesday (27) registered a new brand for a social network focused on photos of everyday life and lifestyle familiar, right?
The app is registered with Quichacha, the Chinese Technology Patent Bank, under the name “Kesong” croissant, in free translation. There is still no official information that the platform will be a direct competitor to Instagram, but the opportunity gives the Internet something to tell.
According to the South China Morning Post portal, the app is scheduled to be launched “in the summer of this year”, which could correspond to the last quarter of 2022. The slogan announced for this is “New lifestyles for young people”. .
Another piece of information not yet announced is whether the launch will be global or just in the Chinese market — where Instagram and other apps from Grupo Meta (also owners of Facebook and WhatsApp) have been under censorship since 2014.
ByteDance has not commented on the launch of the app.
Give change on Instagram?
It’s not the first time ByteDance is trying to launch an app with similar features to Instagram. According to the South China Morning Post, the Chinese company tried to popularize two of its own versions of the selfie social network Xincao in 2018 and Xintu in 2019 both to no avail.
The Chinese company’s trademark registration announcement comes amid a popularity crisis Instagram is facing. The social network is receiving complaints that it’s trying to copy TikTok — one of the recent changes is prioritizing videos over static images in users’ feeds.
Celebrities and regular users have been complaining for weeks. Recently, a post with the phrase “Do Instagram Instagram again. (stop being tiktok i just want to see cute pics of my friends)” went viral on the internet. Supporting the criticism were influencers like Kylie Jenner, the second most followed person on Instagram, and her sister Kim Kardashian, the seventh most followed person on the network.
It is important to keep an eye on whether this possible ByteDance app will prevail in its own country of origin: Currently, China’s “Instagram” is XiaoHongShu, known as “Little Red Book”.