ByteDance has recentlty began testing a new app called Paiduidao, which translated to Party Island. The app currently has restricted access, only users with invitation codes get a sneak peak. Paiduidao is an online virtual community, allowing users to hangout with friends, chat, interact and participate in virtual activities.

Paiduidao features immersive social experience, by letting users create their own customized avatars and participate in activities such as concerts or parties in avatar form. Users can communicate with other users by audio or text.

Prior to Paiduidao, another tech giant in China, Baidu, has released a virtual social platform called XiRang. According to Baidu’s definition, XiRang is “the first Chinese-made metaverse product”. Similar to Paiduidao, XiRang also features virtual actives and virtual event hosting. XiRang has already hosted a virtual art exhibition, featuring Chinese artist Feng Tang’s drawings and calligraphy works. The exhibition features a minimalist aesthetic and provides no interactive functions besides navigating users’ avatars to “walk around” the virtual space.

As Paiduidao has many similar functions to XiRang and other metaverse apps such as Zeepto and Roblox, many suspects Paiduodao to be ByteDance’s metaverse app. However, according to multiple sources, ByteDance immediately denies Paiduidao has any relation to the much hyped metaverse concept, and says it is only testing on a small scale.

ByteDance has long been known for it’s short video streaming apps, Douyin and Tiktok. Douyin, Tiktok’s sister app has 500 million daily active users in China, while WeChat has over 1 billion daily active users. In comparison, Douyin’s social or messaging functions are much less popular. With WeChat’s continuing link-blocking behavior, ByteDance could benefit from having a prominent social app that can generate a steady pool of traffic.

Previously, ByteDance has attempted at creating its own signature social app. In May 2019, ByteDance release Feiliao, an instant messaging app. Feiliao has basic functions such as private messaging, group chats, audio messages, red pockets, as well as video stickers and filters from Douyin. However, Feiliao failed to establish itself as a unique product and was not well embraced by users in China. The short-lived app went offline in May 2021.