Ep. 66: Beyond TikTok: Bytedance’s ambitions in gaming and education

In episode 66 of Tech Buzz China, co-hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu talk about Bytedance’s forays into gaming and education — moves that have been well covered and are eagerly anticipated by Chinese media. Notably, in multiple interviews, CEO Zhang Yiming says that he only wants to go into fields where he feels he is better than the incumbent. While Zhang believes, and we agree, that edtech has a lot of room for improvement, we wonder if Bytedance’s moves in gaming could be more effective if it defended itself against Tencent. What do you think?Thanks to some of your feedback on Rui’s special Luckin episode, we have changed the format of this one. Listeners should expect more experiments coming up soon!A reminder to check out Tech Buzz’s new events series for investors (open to all), as well as our interactive Virtual Happy Hours with listeners like you! Both are free. Our next Happy Hour is titled “From FAANG to BAT,” and we’ve invited a product manager who went from working at a large tech company in Silicon Valley to the same role at a large tech company in China. Jason will be sharing his perspectives and personal experiences on Thursday, May 7, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. PST / 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST. You can sign up at techbuzzchina.com/community!All past transcripts are viewable at pandaily.com and techbuzzchina.com. If you enjoy our work, please do let us know by leaving us an iTunes review, and by tweeting at us @techbuzzchina. We also read your emails, at [email protected] and [email protected]. As always, thank you for your support.We are grateful for our talented producers, Caiwei Chen and Kaiser Kuo, as well as SupChina production associate Jason MacRonald. Stay healthy, everyone! Like the podcasts at SupChina? Help us out by taking this brief survey.