Media apps make headlines in a fast-evolving landscape
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E-mail China Daily, August 24, 2015
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The app Jinri Toutiao. [File photo] |
It is extremely difficult to find an empty room at the Beijing offices of Toutiao.com, a mobile news application.
With more than 800 technical staff, nearly every chair and desk is taken as employees constantly update the popular app, which features headline news, show business, sports and social media issues.
Launched in 2012, Toutiao has 290 million registered users and 27 million regular readers each day. When it started, the organization had just 20 staff but has been growing at a frantic pace since then.
"Whether they are in the subway or on trains, as long as our customers have their smartphones, they can access news and other information via our app," Lin Chufang, vice-president in charge of marketing at Toutiao, said.
Last year, the company received $100 million in another round of financing from Sequoia Capital, which is run by legendary Chinese investor Shen Nanpeng, and Weibo, the Twitter-like online platform in China that is listed in New York.
Shen also has a stake in Ctrip, the largest online travel agency in China, while Sequoia Capital is a major venture capital firm and a key investor in DJ-Innovations, or DJI, the largest commercial drone manufacturer in the world based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
With investors like these, it is hardly surprising that Toutiao, which means "Headline Today" in English, has taken off after an initial round of investment back in 2012. It is now valued at $500 million.
But then, a key element of Toutiao's business plan was to splash out on copyright content from 1,000 media companies in China as well as partnerships deals with thousands of freelance journalists for video clips and news items.
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