TikTok Owner ByteDance Quietly Launches Search App in China

ByteDance, owner of the hit short video app TikTok, has quietly launched a new search engine that promises no advertisements in a cyberspace where Google has not been available for more than a decade. From a report: Without any announcement, ByteDance subsidiary Beijing Infinite Dimension Technology launched the Wukong search app this month, within days of Tencent Holdings shutting down on August 8 its Sogou search app. Sogou, which Tencent bought last year, still maintains its web-based search engine. Wukong, currently available on Apple's App Store in China and various Chinese Android app stores, brings ByteDance into closer competition with Baidu, China's dominant search engine. The new app promotes itself as providing "quality information and search without ads." The line could be interpreted as an indirect jab at Baidu, which has long faced criticism for its paid listings in search results. In 2016, 21-year-old college student Wei Zexi died of a rare cancer after he received experimental treatments recommended by Baidu.

Revenue without ads?

[Tablizer]

Are they subsidized by the gov't?

On Baidu, the first three search results for "double eyelid", a biological feature that many Asians associate with beauty, were all ads for plastic surgery clinics. Wukong results were just tips and knowledge from doctors.

That's a shame, I think the "Asian eye" is a thing of beauty. Western advertising & influence breaks things that ain't broken.