Kuaishou
| File:Kuaishou logo.svg | |
Native name | 快手 |
|---|---|
| Company type | Privately held company |
| Industry | Internet |
| Founded | March 2011 |
| Founder | Su Hua Cheng Yixiao |
| Headquarters | , |
| Revenue |  US$ 7.2 billion (2019)[1] |
| Website | www |
Kuaishou (Chinese: 快手) is a Chinese video sharing app, developed by Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd. In addition to China, it has also gained considerable popularity in other markets: it has topped the Google Play and Apple App Store "most downloaded" lists in eight countries outside of China.[2] It is often referred to as "Kwai" in overseas markets.
Kuaishou's predecessor, "GIF Kuaishou", was founded in March 2011. GIF Kuaishou was a mobile application created to make and share GIF pictures. In November 2012, Kuaishou transformed into a short video community, and a platform for users to record and share videos depicting their everyday lives.[3] By 2013, the app had already reached 100 million daily users.[4] By 2019, that figure had surpassed 200 million active daily users.[5]
Kuaishou has a particularly strong user base among users outside of China's tier 1 cities.[6]
In March 2017, Kuaishou closed a US$350 million investment round led by Tencent.[4] In January 2018, Forbes estimated the company's valuation to be approximately US$18 billion.[7]
Kuaishou was founded by Su Hua and Cheng Yixiao.[8] Prior to co-founding Kuaishou, Su Hua had worked for both Google and Baidu as an engineer.[7] The company is headquartered in Haidian District, Beijing, China.[9]
Kuaishou's main competitor is Douyin, which is known as TikTok outside of China.[10]
In 2019, the company announced a partnership with the People's Daily, an official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, to help it experiment with artificial intelligence in news.[11]
References
- ^ "Kuaishou earned revenue of $7.2 billion in 2019: report". technode.com. 11 February 2020. Archived from the original on 8 April 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
- ^ "Tencent-backed Kwai App ranked Most Popular social short video app". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2019-09-03. Retrieved 2019-09-03.
- ^ "Kuaishou". Baike Baidu.
- ^ a b "Behind the success of Kuaishou, the biggest social video sharing app in China". Technode. May 17, 2017. Archived from the original on September 2, 2019. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
- ^ "Is short-video start-up Kuaishou too 'Zen' for China's internet culture?". South China Morning Post. 2019-06-20. Archived from the original on 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
- ^ Synced (2019-08-12). "Tencent-backed Video App Kuaishou Is Turning Chinese Country Folk Into Hollywood Directors". Synced. Archived from the original on 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
- ^ a b "Su Hua". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
- ^ Jing, Meng (June 20, 2019). "Is short-video start-up Kuaishou too 'Zen' for China's internet culture? Its founders think so". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on September 2, 2019. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
- ^ "Bloomberg Company Profile: Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co Ltd". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on September 2, 2019. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
- ^ "One of China's hottest video apps is flirting with video gaming". South China Morning Post. 2018-12-19. Archived from the original on 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
- ^ Li, Jane (September 20, 2019). "China's tech giants are helping the Communist Party's newspaper fine-tune its online voice". Quartz. Archived from the original on September 20, 2019. Retrieved 2019-09-22.