After launching its messaging app Feiliao (Flipchat in English) in May last year, ByteDance has made the app available on PC earlier this week, as reported by tech outlet TechPlanet.
Feiliao, which shares many similarities with Chinese super-app WeChat, distinguishes itself for offering its users the possibility to join and create public forums, or virtual communities, to share messages and add friends.
The app was first revealed in May 2018 and, as of September of last year, has collected over 25,8000 monthly active users, according to ByteDance.
The new Windows and Mac version, however, lacks the mobile app social functionalities, and just focuses on messaging. As with the mobile version, the desktop version of Flipchat provides 20Gb of free cloud storage for documents, videos, pictures and audio files, which can be synced between devices and sent to other app users. WeChat, on the other hand, has a storage limit of 2Gb.
The move is just the latest by ByteDance to try to take on Tencent in the social messaging space. Last January, ByteDance launched video-based private massaging app Duoshan, expecting to leverage Douyin’s massive user base to push its initial user acquisition.
The app lets users send short video-based messages to each other, similar to the way they exchange text or image messages via WeChat or Snapchat. But while Duoshan topped app store charts after its launch, it has seen downloads plunge, falling out of the top 100 apps according to industry data provider Qimai.
