ByteDance’s social app Feiliao, regarded as a WeChat challenger, appears to have vanished from Apple’s China App Store.
When contacted by KrAsia on Friday, ByteDance–which is the world’s most valuable startup now and is reportedly planning an initial public offering as early as this year–declined to give an explanation, but it said it’s “communicating with Apple App Store and believe[s] there would be an answer soon.” ByteDance told KrASIA that Android users can still download the app and that those who have already installed the app can continue to use it.
ByteDance launched Feiliao, which features instant messaging and interest groups in May, KrAsia reported.
ByteDance previously rolled out another social messaging app called Duoshan, which allowed users to send short video messages to each other the way they exchange text or image messages via WeChat or Snapchat. Duoshan, which was meant to challenge WeChat’s dominance in China’s social sector, has not gained mass popularity.
So far, Feiliao and Duoshan are only available in the Chinese market.