ByteDance’s Douyin Tests New Novel Channel

Tech Planet reported on Tuesday that ByteDance’s Douyin has tested a functional channel called “Novel” on the homepage of its tablet app, allowing users to select e-books that can be read on the platform.

The design of the novel channel is very simple, consisting of “Bookshelf,” “Charts” and “Exclusive” pages. Users can pick novels they are interested in from the Charts and Exclusive sections. If they like the novel, they can add it to their Bookshelf for later reading.

As early as 2019, ByteDance launched a web novel platform called “Fanqie Novel,” mostly targeting young audiences with romance or imperial dramas. Novels within this new Douyin channel are mainly provided by Fanqie Novel, with no paid content for now.

The channel page of the Douyin app has been revised several times, and it has already expanded from just the Intra-City function to a multi-function page covering Study, Recommend and Shopping Mall. This novel function test is an important step in Douyin’s diversification.

It is not unexpected for Douyin to carry out a novel business. According to Questmobile, as of December last year, the overlapping ratio of “Fanqie Novel” and Douyin users reached 72.1%. Douyin’s official launching of its own novel business can better serve these overlapping users and tap into more potential users.

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Recently, ByteDance has been launching a number of apps for paid novels, hoping to drag its novel business into the paid content field and realize a more powerful monetization mode.