Owner of Douyin and Jinri Toutiao short video apps Bytedance on Tuesday said it would release an education product that functions as a study companion for children, venturing further into China’s highly competitive education and hardware market, Caixin Global reported.
Why it matters: Bytedance has experimented in different sectors to expand its line of products. Most recent trials include social apps Duoshan and Feiliao, as well as online reading apps Tomato Novel and Honguo Novel.
- Bytedance also launched an in-app search engine in its content aggregator Jinri Toutiao in August.
Details: According to Bytedance, the education hardware will “accompany” children while they are studying and will be powered by artificial intelligence. The company declined to offer further details when contacted by TechNode on Thursday.
- The study buddy machine project entered into the design stage half a year ago and is currently being led by Wu Dezhou, a former employee of smartphone maker Smartisan. Smartisan was acquired by Bytedance in January.
- Bytedance told Caixin that the product is still “being polished.”