Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok known for its 15-second short videos, is snapping up rights to films and television shows through a partnership with iQiyi, China’s answer to Netflix, reports the South China Morning Post.
The deal gives Douyin, which has over 600 million daily active users in China, rights to edit iQiyi’s long-form content into short video clips, according to a statement by Douyin on Tuesday. The move could be seen as a truce in the bitter war between long-form videos, usually professional productions, and shorts, often amateur-generated video clips such as lip-syncing performances.
The unauthorized re-editing of copyrighted productions was once rampant on China’s short video platforms, causing huge losses for sites such as iQiyi, which had losses of nearly $1 billion in 2021.