From TikTok to Books: ByteDance Explores E-Publishing with 8TH NOTE PRESS

ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, appears to be venturing into the e-publishing market with a recent trade mark application for “8TH NOTE PRESS.” The filing, submitted by ByteDance’s subsidiary Lemon Inc, encompasses a range of book publishing products and services, including an app for reading, downloading, and discussing fiction ebooks, retail bookshop services, and publishing ebooks, audiobooks, and physical books.

The move towards e-publishing seems like a natural progression for ByteDance, considering TikTok’s popularity among book lovers who share content under the #BookTok hashtag. Despite the company’s overall record profit last year, TikTok experienced widening losses. ByteDance is undoubtedly keen to explore new ways of monetising its substantial overseas user base.

An anonymous source claims that the trade marking effort is unrelated to TikTok, but ByteDance continuously seeks new opportunities. As such, the development of a standalone book app where users can read, download, buy, and discuss books is not unexpected. The wealth of user data and insights that TikTok has amassed could help ByteDance determine users’ reading preferences, while content recommendation algorithms similar to those on TikTok could introduce new books on a separate app.

The main challenge for ByteDance entering the e-publishing market will be competing with industry giant Amazon. It remains uncertain where ByteDance will fit in the already fragmented market. Amazon’s dominance as a publisher, distributor, and hardware player (with Kindle) makes it a formidable competitor. According to industry expert Benedict Evans, Amazon commanded over 50% of the US print book market and at least three-quarters of publishers’ ebook sales at the end of 2019.

ByteDance’s advantage in the e-publishing sector may lie in its extensive social media presence, which enables authors and fans to connect directly, and readers to share their thoughts with others. Amazon’s acquisition of social reading site GoodReads a decade ago is the closest it has come to fostering an online community for readers. However, the integration of GoodReads with other Amazon properties has been limited.

ByteDance has some experience in the e-book world, having acquired 11% of Chinese e-book reader Yuewen in 2020 and operating the popular web novel app Tomato Novel in China. In 2021, the company experimented with an English web fiction app called Mytopia, offering romance, horror, and fantasy genres. However, Mytopia faced controversy for launching erotica adverts on Facebook and Instagram. ByteDance will undoubtedly strive to avoid such issues with 8TH NOTE PRESS.