Bytedance files RMB 10 million lawsuit against Baidu for unfair competition

Just weeks after Bytedance and Tencent announced plans to take one another to court, the owner of China’s popular news aggregator Jinri Toutiao has filed a RMB 10 million lawsuit against Baidu for unfair competition.

According to Beijing’s Haidian People’s Court, Bytedance said that content on a Baidu-owned platform detailing the spat between it and Tencent was disparaging and slanderous. The filing claims that Baidu’s reports said Bytedance merely wanted public attention from fights with big tech companies such as Baidu and Tencent.

According to Bytedance, most of the reports originated from Baidu’s Baijiahao, an information aggregator similar to Jinri Toutiao. The company said they misleading and didn’t provide evidence for their accusations. Bytedance also said the reports damaged its public reputation, especially among internet users, and weakened its market competitiveness while improving that of Baidu.

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