Kuaishou pulls the plug on TikTok rival app Zynn

Zynn, a short-video social networking service owned by China’s Kuaishou Technology, will shut down on August 20. Kuaishou did not reveal the reason for the platform’s closure.

The platform, which has often been deemed to be a clone of ByteDance’s popular TikTok app, is only available in the US.

Photo credit: Kuaishou

According to TechCrunch, Kuaishou said that the decision to take Zynn offline wouldn’t impact users of similar services in other markets. The company offers a number of comparable apps in other markets, including Kwai in South America and Snack Video in Southeast Asia.

Zynn notifies users about its imminent shutdown / Photo credit: Zheping Huang (Twitter)

Kuaishou had said last month that it had gone past the 1-billion mark in monthly active users (MAU). Its rival TikTok is predicted to cross 1.2 billion MAUs worldwide this year. TikTok’s China version, Douyin, has already garnered 600 million daily users, according to a report.

See also: ByteDance rival Kuaishou reports a 37% jump in quarterly revenue

Zynn’s short-lived journey has been a controversial one. The platform had come under scrutiny in May last year after a probe found that it was paying users to watch videos to help improve its ranking on the Apple App Store.

In September last year, Google had pulled Zynn’s app from its Play Store after complaints that the platform was featuring videos stolen from other applications. Apple had also scrapped the app from its online store.

Amid a string of controversies, Zynn has fallen behind in the US market. The platform reportedly had a mere 200,000 monthly active users as of June this year, down from 3 million users in August last year.