Although CNN Business did not see the case before the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, several state media outlets, including the Beijing Daily, reported that Douyin was asking Tencent to lift its content restrictions and pay 90 million yuan ($ 14 million) in economic losses . and fees.
“We believe that competition is better for consumers and promotes innovation,” a Douyin spokesman said in a statement to CNN Business. “We have filed this lawsuit to protect our rights and those of our users.”
Tencent shot back and said his own statement Tuesday on WeChat that he also plans to sue ByteDance.
“The relevant allegations of ByteDance were purely false and maliciously defined,” Tencent said. This accused Douyin of “illegal access to WeChat users’ information” and violation of consumer rights.
The two companies have been fighting for a while. Since 2018, they have regularly accused each other of unfair competition, a dispute that has sometimes played out in courts. Chinese media even called the nickname the ‘Tou-Teng Big Fight’, a pun with ByteDance’s news app ‘Toutiao’ and Tencent’s Chinese name ‘Teng Xun’.
But the struggle is now taking on new meaning, and it comes at a time of upheaval in China’s technology industry.
Regulators have also issued new guidelines that they say are intended to prevent internet monopolies, and even opened an investigation into Alibaba over concerns about antitrust.