The name TikTok is no longer strange to anyone. In just a few years, the platform has become one of the most widely used in the world, overshadowing veterans such as Instagram. But TikTok was not always TikTok, nor is it called that everywhere. The social media, which specializes in short vertical videos, was born Douyin, a name it still maintains in China.
Although TikTok and Douyin share the same owner (ByteDance) and software, they use separate networks to face censorship in the Asian country.
How was Douyin born
ByteDance launched Douyin in 2016 specifically for the Chinese market. A year later, it launched TikTok, its Western version, merged with the now-extinct Musical.ly.
Both platforms took off in a flash with the momentum of pandemic-derived confinement and now boast hundreds of millions of active users across the globe. Specifically, at the beginning of 2022, TikTok reached 1 billion users worldwide. Douyin, in contrast, has 600 million in China alone.
Despite being almost identical, Douyin and TikTok are completely separate apps, and there is a key difference between them: the former receives new features before the latter. For example, TikTok implemented features such as live shopping and in-app gaming long after they were already available in Douyin.
Differences between Douyin and TikTok
But not all features tested in China make it to TikTok; some, like the ones we’ll discuss below, never made it out of Douyin.
Horizontal videos
The main TikTok feature that other platforms are copying is its vertical video format. However, Douyin supports videos in horizontal format. When you browse the app, some videos are marked with the icon of a rotating cell phone to inform you that there is the possibility to watch them on full screen.
To change the format, just click on this icon. You can also go on browsing in horizontal format, as the app will show you compatible videos as if it were the vertical feed.
Change the cover photo
TikTok lets you change your profile picture, but not add a cover photo as in Twitter or Facebook. In Douyin, on the other hand, this is not only possible, but you can also expand it to see it at full size by tapping on it.
Another difference in terms of profile settings is that the user information is not centered as it is in TikTok. In this case, it is located to the left, as in Instagram.
Location by city
In TikTok, the feed has two tabs: one called “For You”, which shows recommended videos based on your tastes, and another called “Following”, which only shows videos from accounts you follow.
In the case of Douyin, these two sections are present, but there is also a third one that displays videos of users whose location is close to yours, as well as how far away they are.
Uploading photos
There have been many rumors about the possibility of TikTok allowing users to upload photos and not just videos, but for the time being, this is only possible in Douyin. From the app, you can upload galleries with several photos as a post, something like Instagram’s carousel. The app will display the photos automatically with an animation, but it also allows you to browse them manually one by one (with a little music in the background).
Can you use Douyin outside of China?
The answer is yes, but in a passive way. That is, you can download the app and see what Chinese users publish—in fact, we invite you to do so because the content you will find is very interesting— but you will not be able to create a profile and upload content.
The reason is that you need a Chinese phone number or an account on apps like WeChat or Weibo, also associated with a Chinese phone. Still, even so, it is highly recommended to download this app, both to see content and to learn about news that, perhaps, could reach TikTok.
