CapCut, an all-in-one video editing app owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance, has surpassed 200 million monthly active users, according to a report from Chinese financial media outlet Baijing.
Why it matters: CapCut’s success comes amid an increasingly hostile climate for China-developed apps in the US and European markets, with ByteDance’s TikTok facing restrictions and investigations on multiple fronts.
- The figures make CapCut the second overseas-focused product from ByteDance to achieve more than 100 million MAUs.
Details: CapCut was originally developed by Shenzhen Lianmeng Technology, a startup which ByteDance acquired in 2018 for $300 million. Launched as Jianying in China and designed for both mobile and PC, it offers a range of video editing functions, filters, audio and visual effects, and video templates and is compatible for use with TikTok.
- ByteDance released an overseas version of Jianying in April 2020, rebranding it to CapCut in December 2020.
- According to data from Chinese app analysis platforms Diandian and Data.ai in Baijing’s report, CapCut had more than 200 million MAUs in January. That month also saw CapCut enter the top 30 non-game apps list for iOS and Android devices in China. Its global revenue in January was $800,000, with the US market accounting for more than half of this figure. Although CapCut still has a revenue gap to Meitu’s editing tool BeautyPlus, which tops the list with over $2 million in monthly revenue, it has seen impressive growth, managing to achieve significant monetization in just four months.
- CapCut has largely gained users through in-app promotions on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and by making its services available for free for two years. Since September 2022, CapCut started charging for premium features, which users can access by monthly or annual subscription packages.
- CapCut Pro’s charges revolve around cloud storage and premium features. The monthly cost of cloud storage is $0.99 for 10GB, $1.99 for 100GB, and $5.99 for 1,000 GB. The premium features are priced at $9.99 for a single month, $7.99 for a continuous monthly subscription, and $74.99 for a full year.
- In October 2022, as part of an update, CapCut launched a PC version, which is compatible with most mainstream social media platforms overseas, making it more attractive to both private customers and enterprise businesses.
- The app also runs a creator recruitment program whereby video creators making popular templates can earn up to $1,000.
Context: TikTok reportedly set a goal of topping 1 billion daily active users worldwide by the end of 2022, testament to the app’s continued growth even as it faces a number of investigations and restrictions around the world.
- On Feb. 27, Canada announced that it was banning the use of TikTok on government-owned devices, following similar moves in the US. The ban came just days after the EU announced similar restrictions for its staff.
- In September, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) warned that the ByteDance-owned video platform could face a $29 million fine for failing to protect child privacy.
- Earlier this year, ByteDance moved Douyin vice president Zhi Ying to TikTok to head up the latter’s products and content businesses, as the Beijing-based company looked to involve more of its successful executives in TikTok’s development.