Following the cooperation between state-owned telecom companies and Chinese internet giants, state-owned media companies have recently taken stakes in two short video platforms, namely, Kuaishou and Douyin.
According to mainland China’s newspaper reports, on October 26th, Kuaishou, a short video-sharing mobile app with a worldwide user base of over 200 million, initiated strategic financing as the investor with the Beijing Radio & Television Station (BRTV), a subsidiary of Beijing municipal government. At present, the two largest shareholders of Kuaishou are Beijing Huayi Huilong Network Technology Co, holding 99 percent of the shares, and BRTV with 1 percent of the shares.
Another short video-sharing platform giant Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, also received an investment from Netinvest Chinese (Beijing) Technology Co. (网投中文北京科技有限公司). At present, Douyin is jointly owned by Douyin Ltd. (99 percent) and Netinvest (1percent).
Netinvest is jointly owned by China Net Investment (Beijing) Technology Co., Beijing Cultural Investment Development Group Co., and China Media Group Mobile. The latter two are both state owned companies, with China Media Group Mobile taking 30 percent of the shares.
There are rumors that the 1 percent of the shares held either by BRTV in Kuaishou or by Netinvest in Douyin is a special management stake with a veto right.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), November 6, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202211060183.aspx