Yiming Zhang: The Keyword for Toutiao in 2018 is Globalization

At the Toutiao sixth annual meeting on March 9, its founder and CEO Yiming Zhang talked about corporate social responsibility for the first time, noting “integrity”, “responsibility” and “win-win cooperation”. Zhang also announced that keyword for Toutiao in 2018 is globalization, looking to become a platform for global creation and exchange.

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As Toutiao spreads from China to the rest of the world, according to Zhang, Toutiao needs to assume more social responsibility to gain more trust from society and better conduct business. At the conference, he talked about corporate social responsibility, including integrity, innovation, value creation, responsibility and win-win cooperation.

Besides creating business profits and offering jobs and tax revenue, companies need to be honest and virtuous,

said Zhang. Companies could create more social values by emphasizing product values.

One project within Toutiao aims to help find missing people. With the help of artificial intelligence and precise regional popup technology, Toutiao sends notifications of missing people in accurate regions. Over the past year, this project has helped to reunite more than 4,000 families, extending the value of the product to society.

Toutiao also launched a project helping people in mountainous regions to sell their farm products. The project is co-held with the Gansu Provincial Cyberspace Administration Office, which helps people in poor and remote areas to sell local products. Here, Toutiao uses its recommendation techniques and communication capabilities to create greater social value.

“We want to take on more social responsibilities and make Toutiao a company for society,” Zhang said.

On many occasions, Zhang have noted that as IT companies grow in scale, they should assume more social responsibility.

Zhang also announced at the annual meeting that the company’s new vision is to become a “global creation and communication platform.”

The globalization of Toutiao has already begun. Toutiao has developed overseas in Japan, India, Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and South America, with more than 100 million creators worldwide. Since last year, multiple apps produced by Toutiao had occupied the top three spots in the Apple App Store and Google Play store in many countries. TikTok was on the top list in the Japanese App Store for a long time.

To achieve the new vision of becoming a “global creation and communication platform”, Zhang thinks that Toutiao needs to pay more attention to the company itself. “Many companies can seize business opportunities to scale up. We certainly hope to find and seize such opportunities, but we also hope that the company itself is creative, and provides an excellent product,” said Zhang.

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Zhang also mentioned that market investors value not only business products but also the company itself. If two companies have similar revenues and growth rates, the market favors the one with better internal structure and corporate culture, and the one that can continue to introduce new products.