The recent controversy & threats about banning TikTok in the US have brought Chinese-owned apps into focus. The spotlight has, however, seemed to raise the popularity of these types of apps, which clearly isn’t the intention.
The thing is that even if the US bans TikTok the way India has, there are hundreds of clones of the app in the various app stores that go unnoticed by the authorities, but are gaining massive worldwide traction & users.
Likee is one of these apps. It’s a short video application, formerly known as Like, owned by Bigo Technology (short for Before I Get Old), which is a company based in Singapore, but Bigo is owned, in turn, by Joyy, a Chinese outfit run by Chinese national David Li.
The issue with some Chinese apps is that they are considered to be collecting inappropriate private information on users, which has little or nothing to do with the actual nature of the app. Likee has seen its MAU (Monthly Active Users) increase by more than 50% in the past few months, an increase, no doubt, fuelled by the “shelter in place” rules worldwide.
Likee offers users a number of features that set it apart from TikTok, the most salient being its monetization policy, which gives users the opportunity to “earn” virtual gifts, donated by other users that can be exchanged for cash.
It’s easy to see the appeal that Likee has particularly for young people who are currently advised not to mingle. The app encourages users to shoot short videos that can be manipulated on the app, using a variety of tools & add ons, which include filters, stickers, background music(to which users can lip sync) & an option to change your “face” to a variety of preset options, & it’s all free to use. The concern over very young users viewing inappropriate Content on the app has been somewhat alleviated by the recent parental control option introduced by Likee.
Currently, Likee is moving up the app charts at a phenomenal rate. In 2019, it recorded over 80 million users, & this figure is now reported to have doubled.
Bigo Technology was founded by David Li, & although the company has moved its servers out of Hong Kong, ostensibly to circumvent the recent rule from China, which forces all tech companies to hand over their user data to the authorities, the company is still controlled by China.
With Likee fastest growth markets being North America & Europe, it will be interesting to see how the company will conform, or otherwise, to the directives coming out of Europe & the US, which demand user privacy to be of utmost importance, if not an issue of national security.
Image credit: Likee
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