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
Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today :
Context & Ripple Effects
Kuaishou, the Chinese short-video rival that watched [[a:935209|Sensor Tower data show TikTok out-installing Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube in the US back in October 2018]], is now trying to buy that same chart position outright: Zynn launched in May with cash payments for watching videos, and within weeks it topped the US iOS App Store.
First-order effects
- Kuaishou gets a top-ranked US beachhead against ByteDance without organic network effects — the ranking is purchased through per-user payouts rather than earned through engagement.
- Every dollar spent on watch incentives buys installs, not loyalty, leaving Zynn's active-user base dependent on continued subsidy.
Second-order effects
- Paying for volume invites scraped inventory: within two weeks Zynn was pulled from Google's Play Store over reports of videos stolen from other platforms, and Apple followed days later with an App Store removal — turning the growth hack into a distribution liability.
- ByteDance faces a direct attack on its home turf funded by its largest domestic rival, raising the stakes in the broader China-US short-video contest.
Third-order effects
- The pattern suggests paid-install growth hacks can win charts but not stay on them when content provenance catches up — Kuaishou ultimately announced it would shut Zynn down in August 2021, ending the North America attempt.
- App stores become de facto quality regulators: ranking manipulation through incentives draws platform-level enforcement that no growth budget can outrun.
The trend: Short-video competition is shifting from product cloning to subsidized user acquisition, where app store policy and content rights — not ad budgets — decide which clones survive.