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TikTok is leaving the Hong Kong market

"In light of recent events we've decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong"

TikTok is leaving the Hong Kong market

Social media app TikTok is set to leave the Hong Kong market over the next few days.

As reported by Reuters, the ByteDance-owned firm made the decision based on the new national security law being enforced by China. Currently, it is unknown if Hong Kong will be held to the same jurisdiction as Beijing, but the Chinese company is unwilling to take chances.

"In light of recent events, we've decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong," said a TikTok spokesman.

The company has previously stated that it would not comply with any requests for censorship by the country's government. However, TikTok has claimed that China never made any such requests.

Worldwide success

Overall, the small-clip app has been downloaded more than two billion times worldwide through both iOS and Android devices. However, only 150,000 of those installs came from Hong Kong.

Currently, ByteDance has no plans to bring its China's version of TikTok – Douyin – to the Hong Kong market. Despite this, it has attracted more users in Hong Kong than TikTok, as the app can be installed in mainland China or by switching accounts.

"Douyin has lots of users in Hong Kong and will continue to serve the users there," said ByteDance China CEO Zhang Nan.

At the start of 2020, it was reported that ByteDance was planning to make a big push in the mobile games space. It is also confirmed to be working on its own smartphone.


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.