Tencent sues Douyin for $126m over copyright issue

Tencent, which had sued ByteDance’s Douyin over the animated series Soul Land (also known as Doulou Dalu), has now increased the claim amount to US$126 million, reported Pandaily.

Filed in June before the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing, the case contends that content uploaded by Douyin users breached the copyright of Soul Land. This is also the latest in a series of lawsuits hurled by the tech conglomerate against the Chinese version of short-video app TikTok.

Tencent initially wanted US$9.7 million from Douyin, aside from asking the platform to delete all Soul Land uploads and block clips from being posted in the future. The tech giant has filed 168 cases in 18 courts against the video-sharing platform for a total of 2.943 billion yuan (US$460 million), mostly for unauthorized uploads of Soul Land and the TV series You Are My Glory.

Soul Land, which is based on a fantasy novel with the same name, is available on Tencent’s streaming website QQ for Chinese viewers and through WeTV for audiences outside China.

Currency converted from Chinese yuan to US dollar: US$1 = 6.37 yuan.