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Kuaishou

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Kuaishou Technology
Native name
快手
Company typePublic company; partially state-owned
SEHK: 1024
IndustryInternet
FoundedMarch 2011; 13 years ago (2011-03)
FounderSu Hua
Cheng Yixiao
Headquarters
Beijing
,
China
Key people
Su Hua (CEO)
RevenueIncrease US$9.1 billion (2020)[citation needed]
OwnerChina Internet Investment Fund (Cyberspace Administration of China)
Beijing Radio and Television Station
Websitewww.kuaishou.com Edit this at Wikidata
Kwai
Developer(s)Kuaishou Technology
Operating system
TypeVideo sharing
LicenseProprietary software
Websitewww.kwai.com

Kuaishou Technology (Chinese: 快手; lit. 'quick hand') is a Chinese publicly traded partly state-owned holding company based in Haidian District, Beijing, that was founded in 2011 by Hua Su (宿华)[1] and Cheng Yixiao (程一笑).[2] The company is known for developing a mobile app for sharing users' short videos, a social network, and video special effects editor.

As of 2019, it has a worldwide user base of over 200 million,[3] leading the “Most Downloaded” lists of the Google Play and Apple App Store in eight countries, such as Brazil. In Pakistan and Indonesia, this app is known as Snack Video.[4] It is often referred to as "Kwai" in overseas markets. Its main competitor is Douyin, which is known as TikTok outside China.[5]

Kuaishou's overseas team is led by the former CEO of the application 99, and staff from Google, Facebook, Netflix, and TikTok were recruited to lead the company's international expansion.[6]

The China Internet Investment Fund, a state-owned enterprise controlled by the Cyberspace Administration of China, holds a golden share ownership stake in Kuaishou.[7]

History

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Kuaishou is China's first short video platform[8] that was developed in 2011 by engineer Hua Su and Cheng Yixiao. Prior to co-founding Kuaishou, Su Hua had worked for both Google and Baidu as a software engineer.[9] The company is headquartered in Haidian District, Beijing.[10]

Kuaishou's predecessor "GIF Kuaishou" was founded in March 2011. GIF Kuaishou was a mobile app with which users could make and share GIF pictures. In November 2012, Kuaishou became a short video community and a platform with which users could record and share videos.[citation needed] By 2013, the app had reached 100 million daily users.[11] By 2019, it had exceeded 200 million active daily users.[12]

In March 2017, Kuaishou closed a US$350 million investment round that was led by Tencent.[11] In January 2018, Forbes estimated the company's valuation to be US$18 billion.[9]

In April 2018, Kuaishou's app was briefly banned from Chinese app stores after China Central Television (CCTV) reported on the platform popularizing videos of teenage mothers.[13]

In 2019, the company announced a partnership with the People's Daily, an official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, to help it experiment with the use of artificial intelligence in news.[14]

In June 2020, following the start of the 2020–2021 China–India skirmishes, the Government of India banned Kwai along with 58 other apps, citing "data and privacy issues".[15]

In January 2021, Kuaishou announced it was planning an initial public offering (IPO) to raise approximately US$5 billion.[16] Kuaishou's stock completed its first day of trading at $300 Hong Kong dollars (HKD) (US$38.70), more than doubling its initial offer price, and causing its market value to rise to over $1 trillion HKD (US$159 billion).[17][18]

In February 2021, Kuaishou made a debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with its shares soaring by 194% at the opening.[19] However, the company soon faced significant challenges due to stringent regulatory restrictions on Chinese internet companies, leading to a nearly 80% decline in its share price from its peak post-IPO.[20] By December 2021, Kuaishou announced a major reorganization, including the layoff of 30% of its staff, primarily targeting mid-level employees earning an annual salary of $157,000 or more. This restructuring aimed to cut costs and mitigate financial losses.[20]

In October 2022, state-owned Beijing Radio and Television Station took a minority ownership stake in Kuaishou.[21]

In April 2024, a Financial Times article citing current and former Kuaishou employees stated that the company has been running an ageist redundancy programme known internally as "Limestone", culling workers in their mid-30s.[22]

In June 2024, Kuaishou released its diffusion transformer text-to-video model, Kling, which they claimed could generate two minutes of video at 30 frames per second and in 1080p resolution. The model has been compared to that of OpenAI's Sora text-to-video model. It is accessible to the public on Kuaishou's video editing app KwaiCut via signing up for a waitlist with a Chinese phone number.[23][24][25]

Popularity

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Compared to its main short video platform competitor Douyin, Kuaishou is more popular with older users who live outside China's Tier 1 cities. Its initial popularity came from videos of Chinese rural life.[8][26] Kuaishou also relied more on e-commerce revenue than on advertising revenue compared to its main competitor.[27]

Most followed accounts

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As of 30 June 2024, the most followed account on the platform is Kuaishou Store with over 200 millions followers. The most followed individual account belongs to Chinese E-commerce businessman Xin Youzhi.

Rank User name Owner Followers(millions)
1 @kuaishouxiaodian- Kuaishou Store 200+
2 @188888880 Xin Youzhi 99.99+
3 @dandanzuiniu Dandan 99.49
4 @newscctv CCTV 74.75
5 @2588801384 Jackie Chan 73.5
6 @rmrbxmtzx People's Daily 67.94
7 @40300048 Kuaishou Live 65.34
8 @339933349 Taiyuan Laoge 65.5
9 @2181681 Xiao Yang Ge 58.33
10 @dianfengzhiye Zhi Bo Huo Dong Jun 55.19
11 @DLT11111DLT Qing He Li Ge 52.35
12 @love123456 kele Xiao Fan 52.01
13 @baixiaobai666 Bai Xiaobai 51
14 @616602646 Mutong 51.51
15 @jaychou Jay chou 50.66
16 @maomei527 Maomei 49.26
17 @sanda927 Chen Weijie 48.77

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Synced (12 August 2019). "Tencent-backed Video App Kuaishou Is Turning Chinese Country Folk Into Hollywood Directors Synced". syncedreview.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Is short-video start-up Kuaishou too 'Zen' for China's internet culture?". South China Morning Post. 20 June 2019. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  3. ^ Synced (12 August 2019). "Tencent-backed Video App Kuaishou Is Turning Chinese Country Folk Into Hollywood Directors". Synced. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  4. ^ "Tencent-backed Kwai App ranked Most Popular social short video app". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  5. ^ "One of China's hottest video apps is flirting with video gaming". South China Morning Post. 19 December 2018. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  6. ^ "Billionaire Who Missed Out on TikTok Is Trying to Beat It". Bloomberg.com. 21 July 2021. Archived from the original on 22 July 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  7. ^ "China's communist authorities are tightening their grip on the private sector". The Economist. 18 November 2021. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  8. ^ a b "Is Kuaishou Still China's Short Video "Platform for the People?"". RADII Stories from the center of China's youth culture. 8 January 2021. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  9. ^ a b "Su Hua". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  10. ^ "Bloomberg Company Profile: Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co Ltd". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  11. ^ a b "Behind the success of Kuaishou, the biggest social video sharing app in China". Technode. 17 May 2017. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  12. ^ "Is short-video start-up Kuaishou too 'Zen' for China's internet culture?". South China Morning Post. 20 June 2019. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  13. ^ Zhong, Raymond (6 April 2018). "China Isn't Happy About Its Newest Internet Stars: Teenage Moms". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 1 May 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  14. ^ Li, Jane (20 September 2019). "China's tech giants are helping the Communist Party's newspaper fine-tune its online voice". Quartz. Archived from the original on 20 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  15. ^ Shrivastava, Rahul (29 June 2020). "Govt bans 59 Chinese apps including TikTok as border tensions simmer in Ladakh". India Today. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  16. ^ Chiu, Joanne (25 January 2021). "China's Love of TikTok-Style Apps Powers $5 Billion IPO". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  17. ^ "Kuaishou shares jump 161 per cent in debut as Hong Kong's hottest IPO paves way for offerings from rival video-sharing app owners". South China Morning Post. 5 February 2021. Archived from the original on 6 February 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  18. ^ Chiu, Joanne (5 February 2021). "TikTok Rival's Stock More Than Doubles in Hong Kong Debut". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 6 February 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  19. ^ "Análise: Felipe Zmoginski - Rival do TikTok, app de vídeos quer emplacar streaming e comércio ao vivo". www.uol.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  20. ^ a b "Kuaishou reportedly lays off 30% of mid-level staff amid sweeping crackdowns". KrASIA. 7 December 2021. Archived from the original on 13 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  21. ^ "Chinese state broadcaster takes 1 per cent stake in short video app Kuaishou". South China Morning Post. 7 November 2022. Archived from the original on 17 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  22. ^ Kai, Waluszewski; Olcott, Eleanor (23 April 2024). "China's ageing tech workers hit by 'curse of 35'". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 24 April 2024. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  23. ^ Morrison, Ryan (7 June 2024). "Forget Sora — Kling is a killer new AI video model that just dropped and I'm impressed". Tom's Guide. Future US. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  24. ^ Franzen, Carl (12 June 2024). "What you need to know about Kling, the AI video generator rival to Sora that's wowing creators". VentureBeat. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  25. ^ Yang, Zeyi (19 June 2024). "I tested out a buzzy new text-to-video AI model from China". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  26. ^ "From Douyin to Kuaishou: A visual look at China's hottest short video apps". South China Morning Post. 4 September 2018. Archived from the original on 1 May 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  27. ^ Chen, Tingyi (24 February 2020). "Why is Kuaishou Better than Douyin for E-commerce Conversion & Social Engagement". WalktheChat. Archived from the original on 1 May 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
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