China Digital
‘Diaper Proposal’ Goes Viral on Weibo
It is a romantic dream for most women to see their lover kneeling down with a diamond ring and a bunch of beautiful roses. For one Guangzhou woman, however, this dream turned out somewhat different.
A young man named Feng proposed to his pregnant girlfriend with over 50 packs of diapers on Tuesday in Guangzhou, China. With the help of his friends, Feng arranged the diapers in the shape of a giant heart alongside the Pearl River, joined by a big banner saying: “Will You Marry Me?”
He then gave his girlfriend another bag of diapers, carried by a drone, with a diamond ring inside. His girlfriend, who seemed surprised and touched by the gesture, said yes.
The spectacular scene attracted the attention of many bypassers and was photographed and uploaded to Weibo, leading the topic to become trending under the hashtag of “Diaper Proposal” (#纸尿裤求婚#).
The proposal was inspired by Taiwanese celebrity couple Alyssa Chia and Xiu Jie Kai, who announced the birth of their baby daughter through social media this summer. They later shared a video titled “Mothers who lack sleep” (缺睡妈妈), illustrating the exhaustion of working and stay-at-home mums who have to wake up at all hours of the night to take care of their crying baby and change their diapers. The video was sponsored by ‘Libero’ diapers.
Taiwanese actors Xiu Jie Kai previously said he would take up daddy duties such as changing diapers and bottle-feeding to reduce the burden on his wife.
Unsurprisingly, the same brand of diapers used in the video shared by Alyssa Chia and Xiu Jie Kai, were also used for the proposal in Guangzhou. “From now on, your happiness and the baby’s happiness are my responsibility. I will take care of our baby at night time and make sure you have sufficient sleeping time every day,” Feng said during his proposal. The intention behind his creative proposal was the promise to his girlfriend that he would be a good father, and that he would make sure that his girlfriend would not turn into a ‘tired mummy’.
Many of the Weibo comments for Feng’s creative proposal are positive. Many netizens give their thumbs up. Weibo netizen @Mr___Saturday commented that the way one proposes is actually not important; what counts is the sincere love of Feng for his girlfriend.
Some users see the commercial value of the hyped proposal: “This is just excellent marketing for Libero Diapers,” Tony says.
– by Jennifer Tang
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©2015 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.
China Digital
Are Douyin and TikTok the Same?
China’s popular “Douyin” app is known as “TikTok” in markets outside of China. But is it really one app?
Douyin, (抖音, literally “shaking sound” in Chinese) is a short video media app owned by China’s young tech giant Bytedance (字节跳动). The app allows users to create, edit, and share short videos as well as livestreams, often featuring music in the background.
Douyin’s international name is TikTok, an app that looks the same as Douyin, while in fact, the two are not one and the same, despite Bytedance’s efforts to brand it as such.
This is not the first time a Chinese tech company presents one app as being the same everywhere, while it actually is not. Tencent’s super app Weixin (微信), also known as WeChat, runs two different systems for its Chinese and international version, as explained here.
When downloading either WeChat or Weixin, both being the same app, the app determines what features you can use and what information you can see based on the telephone number you register your account with.
In practice, this means that when you are a non-Chinese resident, you will be using the ‘international version,’ meaning you will have access to (international-specific) content that a user registered with a Chinese telephone number will not be able to see. The overseas version also does not have the same Wallet functions the Chinese version has.
Two apps, two systems
The difference between WeChat vs Weixin and TikTok vs Douyin, however, is not the same. Whereas the first is basically one app with two different modes, Douyin and TikTok are two completely separate entities.
Depending on the app store you use, you will either be able to download Douyin or TikTok. Users of Chinese app stores can only find Douyin, whereas users of the overseas Apple store or Google Play will only find TikTok available for download.
That the apps are actually separate systems becomes clear when running the same search words in both apps. As shown below, both apps provide different content for the same search words.
Left image: TikTok, Right image: Douyin.
For example, one of TikTok’s most popular channels of this moment is called ‘LisaandLena,’ a verified account by two German twins which has over 32 million fans. However, when you enter ‘LisaandLena’ in Douyin, the only result is an unverfied account which only has 102 fans and shows seven videos.
Results are the same the other way around. One of Douyin’s most popular accounts is that of Chinese actor Chen He (陈赫), who has over 52 million fans features 62 videos at this week. However, when running the same name search in TikTok, several unverified accounts come up, all showing some similar videos like those on Chen He’s Douyin account.
Top left picture: Douyin; top right and two bottom pictures: TikTok.
This suggests that, although Tiktok and Douyin have the same functions, layout, and logos, its users in China and overseas are kept completely separate and are not able to interact with eachother, something that a recent Chinese blog also discusses in detail.
The Rise of Douyin and TikTok
Ever since its launch in September 2016, Douyin has grown immensely popular. Just one year after its release, Douyin had more than 100 million users and became the second most downloaded app in the Chinese Apple store.
In September 2017, ByteDance took its app overseas; branding Douyin as TikTok for the international market, while keeping the app’s original name, Douyin, for its Chinese market.
Similar to Douyin, TikTok appeared to strike the right chord among internet users right away. In the first quarter of 2018 (note: within half a year after release), TikTok was the 6th most downloaded non-game app in the Apple app store and Google play store combined. In the Apple app store, it was even the most downloaded app. With its 45,8 downloads in the first quarter, TikTok beat apps such as Facebook, Youtube, or Instagram in the popularity rankings.
But that is not where TikTok’s short-video craze halted. In August 2018, TikTok merged with short video app Musical.ly (founded in 2014), that had over 100 million monthly active users at the time. In October last year, after receiving several investments, ByteDance Ltd. officially became the worlds most valuable private start-up, valued at 75 billion dollars.
By summer, ByteDance announced that TikTok, (meaning both apps combined) had more than 500 million monthly active users worldwide. About 300 million of these 500 million monthly active users are China’s domestic users.
Why does ByteDance separate Douyin and TikTok?
Why would Bytedance go through the effort to create two apps running on different systems? The answer partly lies in China’s strictly controlled online environment, where (social) media companies have to adhere to local policies on what is and what is not allowed to be published on their (user-generated) platforms.
In 2018, Bytedance was already criticized by authorities for hosting ‘inappropriate content’ on its news platform Jinri Toutiao. The joke app Neihan Duanzi, also run by Bytedance, was forced to shut down. Afterward, the company vowed to hire 4,000 additional censors, clearly not taking any risks in getting more warnings from authorities.
Tik Tok doesn’t allow Chinese users to download the international version, as this blogger found out. Strict firewall separating the two apps (Douyin and Tik Tok). Obviously, it has to be done this way to comply with censorship. https://t.co/bCFfTd0Ukm
— Rui Ma (@ruima) 7 januari 2019
By separating Tiktok from Douyin, ByteDance can closely regulate the contents uploaded to Douyin, as they will be disseminated within China, while leaving overseas TikTok and its users relatively free to share whatever content they want to share (do note that the app also set up a team of 20 censors in Indonesia to monitor and ‘sanitize’ content from the platform there, after receiving complaints from Indonesian authorities).
New regulations for online video content
In light of tighter control on online video platforms, it seems that Bytedance’s monitoring team will have to work around the clock. On January 9, China’s Netcasting Services Association (中国网络视听节目服务协会), an association directly managed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, issued new regulations that online short video platforms in China should adhere to. One of the new guidelines requires all online video service providers to carefully examine content before it is published.
Tech Sina reports that the new stipulations require that all online video content, from titles to comments and even the use of emoticons, has to be in accordance with regulations, which prohibit any content that is ‘vulgar,’ is offending to the Chinese political system, puts revolutionary leaders in a negative light, or undermines social stability in any way.
On Weibo, the newest regulations became a topic of discussion, with many netizens wondering how short video apps such as Douyin are going to comply, and how its users will be affected.
Although Douyin has not responded to how and if its platform will change in light of the latest regulations, we can expect that TikTok will not be affected – it will be marching to the beat of his own app.
By Gabi Verberg, with contributions by Manya Koetse
Interested to know more about Bytedance and TikTok? We recommend listening to this podcast by Techbuzz China.
Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us.
©2019 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com
China Digital
Alipay Changes Name to Hanbao (But for Users, Nothing Will Change)
Alipay, oh, Alipay, wherefore art thou Hanbao now?
First published .
On January 8, news that Alibaba’s online payment platform ‘Alipay’ (Zhifubao 支付宝) changed its official name to Hanbao (瀚宝), became a big topic of discussion on Chinese social media. The hashtag ‘Zhifubao Company Changes Name’ (#支付宝公司更名#) received millions of views on Tuesday, reaching over 30 million by Tuesday night.
Zhifubao (支付宝) is the Chinese name for the country’s leading mobile and online payment app. The brand ‘Zhifubao’ literally means ‘payment treasure.’ Outside of China, Zhifubao is known by its English name ‘Alipay.’
Alipay is operated by the Ant Financial Services Group (蚂蚁金服), an affiliate company of Alibaba.
The name change was reportedly registered for the ‘Zhifubao (China) Information Technology Company’ (支付宝[中国]信息技术有限公司), that changed into ‘Hanbao (Shanghai) Information Technology Company’ (瀚宝[上海]信息技术有限公司), just as ‘Alipay China Holding Limited’ has been changed to ‘Hanbao China Holding Limited.’
The name change was registered on December 18th of 2018. The legal ownership of the company has also been changed from Ma Yun (Jack Ma) to Ye Yuqing (叶郁青), who is the Ant Financial Chairman. Yicai Global already reported about a change to Alipay’s legal entity in the summer of 2018.
In October of 2018, the Financial Times reported that Jack Ma had quietly relinquished his ownership of the legal entities at the heart of Alibaba, after announcing he would retire as Alibaba’s chairman.
The Alipay company responded to the commotion, saying that the name change is just an “administrative matter” that will not affect consumers using the app in any way.
On Weibo, however, not everyone is happy with the change. “I owe Jack Ma some money, why do I now need to return it to Ye Yuqing?” one commenter wonders. Many others say similar things, jokingly saying they now no longer owe Jack Ma money. The Alipay platform allows users to buy items with credit through their ‘Huabei’ loan tool.
“Is Jack Ma no longer looking after us?!”, others say. “Being legal representative and being a shareholder are two different things,” one Weibo user replies.
The fact that the ‘Hanbao’ name is pronounced the same way as ‘Hamburger’ (汉堡) in Mandarin is also a reason some people are mocking the name change. Some netizens wonder if ‘Alipay’ will now change into ‘Hanbaopay.’
In 2017, there was also some online commotion when it was announced that McDonald’s China would change its name from Maidanglao to Jin Gongmen (‘Golden Arches’). At the time, McDonald’s China also responded to its name change, saying that it was for “official certification” only.
Time has shown that indeed nothing changed; just as the McDonald’s hamburgers are still the same, Alipay’s official hamburger-sounding new name is unlikely to affect its payment convenience.
Read more: Insights into Sesame Credit & Top 5 Ways to Use a High Sesame Score
By Manya Koetse
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Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us.
©2019 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com
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