Kuaishou, China’s second-largest short video app by monthly active users, plans to roll out a standalone app called Zhuiya for creators to share short drama series that are made to suit vertical smartphone screens, Chinese media outlet New Business Trend reported on Friday.
Zhuiya is based on a content section which was introduced inside Kuaishou in April, called Kuaishou Xiaojuchang (which translates to “mini theater”) hosting short drama videos. New Business Trend now says this content section will be spun out into its own app. The app covers genres including romance, campus life, urban or rural life and career life.
But Zhuiya, which means something like “binge-watching” in Chinese, is not available for download in most Chinese app marketplaces yet.
Kuaishou has not replied to KrASIA‘s request for a comment.
The short video app is most known for instructional videos, such as cooking, playing instruments, and so on, and targets young Chinese users in smaller cities.
It has been experimenting and diversifying its content types.
Kuaishou now has a function that allows some of its users to post videos lasting up to 10 minutes instead of the typical short-form video, which meant users could now attract audiences that like to watch longer content, such as from video streaming sites like Baidu’s iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Alibaba’s Youku.
A recent QuestMobile report indicates a total of 821 million monthly active users (MAUs) in China used at least one short video app in June, indicating the format was second in popularity to long-form videos, which had 964 million MAUs across various platforms in China. Mobile gaming apps had 691 million aggregate MAUs, while music streaming attracted 658 million total MAUs. News reading apps hit 364 million MAUs.
In a breakdown of short video apps in the same report, Kuaishou’s MAUs reached 341 million, while ByteDance’s MAUs for Douyin (TikTok’s name in China), as well as its Watermelon and Volcano short video apps combined hit 588 million. Tencent’s creation, Weishi, trailed behind with 105 million users.