Chinese short video app Kuaishou has launched a video game live-streaming app for Android, upping its stakes in China’s highly competitive live-streaming market.
The move is the latest in Kuaishou’s efforts to diversify its services. The company has launched five apps in less than a year, including mobile game platform Kuaishou Minigames, PC live-streaming platform Kuaishou Live-streaming, and community app Bengdi. It also acquired Chinese video sharing website AcFun in June last year.
Kuaishou’s new app, dubbed Dianmiao, hosts game livestreams, videos, forums, and downloads. The live-streaming feature of the app doesn’t differ much from competing services such as Douyu TV and Huya. It does, however, provide a more specific list of behaviors that are prohibited in its livestreams. In addition to behaviors that go against regulations and laws, lowbrow content, smoking, and drinking are also forbidden.
As of writing, one of the most popular live-streaming shows on Dianmiao features Tencent’s hit mobile game Honour of Kings. The show has around 19,000 viewers. A top show of the same game on live-streaming platform Douyu has more than 1.3 million viewers, numbers on Douyu’s app show.
The recorded video section of Dianmiao is essentially Kuaishou with a focus on video games, particularly games in the battle royale genre, where players fight in a large battlefield until there is only one person or team left standing. The app also enables users to access videos from uploaders and streamers they follow in Kuaishou within their Dianmiao feed.
The game live-streaming landscape of China is already dominated by two heavyweights, Hong Kong-listed Huya and soon-to-be-listed Douyu. Although Kuaishou has succeeded in becoming one of the most popular short video apps in China, claiming to have 130 million daily users, whether it can enjoy smooth sailing in this sector remains uncertain.