TechCrunch recently touched on an interesting topic as the author asked: why hasn’t one news aggregator app achieved similar success like China’s Toutiao in the United States?
To be clear, Toutiao literally means big news in Chinese language. But what we are talking about is the $75 billion start-up ByteDance, which is the owner of news aggregator Toutiao and Douyin (Tik Tok in China).
The TechCrunch author Catherine Shu noted the success of Toutiao is no small feat considering the central role WeChat plays in the daily lives of the region’s smartphone users, which is why the above question popped up.
The answer according to Catherine is Many readers still get news from Google Search (not the company’s news app) and when they do use an app for news, it’s Facebook.
The story went on:
The top social media platform continues to be a major source of news for many Americans, even as they express reservations about the reliability of the content they find there.
According to research from Columbia Journalism Review, 43% of Americans use Facebook and other social media platforms to get news, but 57% said they “expect the news they see on those platforms to be largely inaccurate.”
Regardless, they stick with Facebook because it’s timely, convenient and they can share content with friends and read other’s comments.
The social media platform is one of the main reasons why no single news aggregator app has won over American users the same way Toutiao has in China, but it’s not the only one.
For the full analysis, please read the original story on TechCrunch here.
