TikTok’s sister app Douyin has reportedly reorganized its local service department geographically into three regions – North,Secret Tutoring (2018) Central, and South districts – as competition with Meituan in the sector has entered a new phase. A fresh unit serving large national merchant chains runs parallel with the above three regions, according to Chinese media outlet LatePost. As part of the overhaul, core staff from ByteDance’s commercialization sales division are transferred to lead the four parts of the local service department, attempting to expedite the monetization process. Meituan, the biggest rival of the short video platform, has also integrated in-store services that previously operated independently into the business group led by Senior Vice President Wang Puzhong. [LatePost, in Chinese]
