Zynn, a TikTok clone from ByteDance Chinese rival Kuaishou, pays users to watch videos and has now hit the top of the US iOS App Store following its May debut
There's a new, Chinese-owned, short-form video app on the rise, with TikTok-like Zynn hitting the top of the US App Store charts this week. Tweets: @taylorlorenz Tweets: Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz : “Pays users to watch videos” https://twitter.com/... Expand More For Next Unexpand More For Next
Context & Ripple Effects
Kuaishou, the chief domestic rival to ByteDance whose TikTok was already beating Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube on monthly US installs back in late 2018, has answered with Zynn — a short-form clone whose hook is paying viewers rather than courting creators. The pay-to-watch mechanic pushed it to the top of the US iOS App Store within a month of its May debut.
The chart position, though, proved fragile: within weeks Zynn was pulled from Google's Play Store over stolen videos, then removed from Apple's App Store too, and Kuaishou ultimately shut the app down entirely in August 2021, ending its North America bid.
First-order effects
- Zynn's cash-for-watch scheme converts marketing spend directly into App Store rank, giving Kuaishou an immediate US user base without replicating TikTok's creator network.
Second-order effects
- Paying for attention instead of earning it leaves Zynn dependent on scraped content — the stolen-video reports that got it delisted from both stores are the direct cost of scaling faster than its own library.
Third-order effects
- The full arc — top of the charts, delisted twice, shut down — suggests that in short-form video, bought distribution cannot substitute for creator supply, and that Apple and Google act as de facto content-provenance gatekeepers for foreign entrants.
The trend: Chinese short-video platforms trying to crack the US market by purchasing engagement are learning that store gatekeepers and thin content libraries cap what paid acquisition alone can achieve.