BYTEDANCE Technology unveiled a new video messaging app called Duoshan, a move which analysts say will see it muscling into a space dominated by Tencent’s WeChat messenger.

ByteDance is one of China’s fastest growing startups and owns the country’s leading news aggregator Jinri Toutiao and short video platform TikTok. It is considering an IPO in Hong Kong this year.

Xu Luran, the company’s product director, debuted Duoshan at a live-streamed event in Beijing on Tuesday, during which she showed the app’s chat functions and a feature allowing users to send videos to each other that will disappear after 72 hours.

The purpose of Duoshan, which does not have a like or comment function, is to reduce the pressure users feel they are under to present their best self on social media, Xu said, adding it is targeted at young Chinese users born after 1990.

The fact that the video will be visible only to the user after three days “will reduce social pressure, allow you to free your true personality and not to worry that you’re ‘digging a grave’ for your future,” ByteDance said.

Founded by entrepreneur Zhang Yiming in 2012, Bytedance counts venture firm Sequoia Capital, big private equity firms such as KKR, General Atlantic and Hillhouse Capital Group as backers, sources have said.

(SD-Agencies)