Bytedance, parent company of global sensation TikTok, has pulled the plug on its artificial Intelligence based news aggregator app TopBuzz. Launched in 2015, TopBuzz was one of the company’s earliest products that was solely catered to the global markets.
TikTok’s parent company apparently ran out of patience after the TopBuzz app failed to capture sizeable market share across the international markets. Its download numbers for the month of April (according to app intelligence firm Sensor Tower) merely hovered around 20,000; an unimpressive number for its parent company that is today officially the world’s most valuable startup.
According to reports, Bytedance has confirmed that it has removed the app TopBuzz from Apple app store as well as Google play store. The company has also reportedly added it will steadily trim down the article updates for its existing users.
The Google play store shows URL not found page when searched for TopBuzz app.
TopBuzz was Bytedance’s effort to replicate the success of its Chinese native app Jinri Toutiao on an international scale. Jinri Toutiao app is a popular Chinese news aggregator app and is amongst the most downloaded apps in the world’s most populous nation.
However, TopBuzz failed to replicate the success of either Jinri Toutiao or TikTok. The app aggregated news from some of the topmost publications including the Daily Mail and The Daily Beast.
Reliable sources privy to the matter claim that TopBuzz had started scaling down its business last year itself after the company started acknowledging its poor performance.
Meanwhile, TikTok continues to dominate the global app market. The popular video-sharing app has clearly benefitted from the global lockdown imposed in the wake of coronavirus crises. In India as well, TikTok has managed to maintain its supremacy despite Indo-China political tensions and the recent rise in anti-Chinese sentiments in the country.