Behind the rise of TikTok’s sister app

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Hi there,

Last week, I watched one of the biggest upsets in the history of the World Cup, when the national team of Saudi Arabia surprisingly defeated two-time champions Argentina in Qatar.

Without taking credit away from the spirited Saudi team, it seemed Argentina was playing without focus – especially after its three goals were disallowed due to offside rules.

The team actually looks better if you see the statistics. Argentina leads in number of shots (15 versus three), ball possession (70% versus 30%), number of corner kicks (nine versus two), and ball touches (800 versus 450). However, all of those numbers are worthless if it still scored less goals than its opponents.

My colleague Shadine brought up a similar issue in this week’s Big Story.

She puts the spotlight on CapCut, a video-editing app developed by Chinese tech giant ByteDance. The app has tons of users thanks to its connections with popular sister app TikTok as well as how it allows people to share videos on other platforms.

Naturally, the app may be another cash cow for ByteDance. However, CapCut may still fall short in its monetization plans – something that is really important in the current macroeconomic climate – because its subscription-only features are not enticing enough.

ByteDance may not be in a rush to retrieve money from the video-editing app, as the tech giant seems to be on a path to profitability. CapCut can also still make a return from advertising schemes. However, if ByteDance is not careful, it may fail to convert this huge potential and become the next Argentina.

Meanwhile, my colleague Nikita also points out another possible upset in the electric vehicle landscape in China, which may have paved the way for Southeast Asian countries to be the Saudi Arabia in the Sustainability World Cup. More on this in Making Waves.

— Aditya

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THE BIG STORY

CapCut could be ByteDance’s next cash cow

TikTok’s sister app CapCut has dominated its category for the past year, but can the video-editing platform further monetize its audience?

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MAKING WAVES

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FYI

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NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

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