(CelebrityAccess) — Musical.ly, the lip-synching social media app that has developed a loyal audience among teens and young adults, has been acquired by a Chinese tech firm.
Bytedance, owner of the popular Chinese news aggregator Toutiao, announced that they were purchasing Musical.ly last week. While the company did not disclose a valuation on the deal, sources familiar with the negotiation quoted by Bloomberg have estimated that the transaction was worth approximately $800 million.
Musical.ly, founded by two Chinese entrepreneurs in 2014, became a hit app in the states, allowing users to pair 15-second videos with lip-syncing to popular songs and share the end result with friends. According to March 2017 data from Defy Media, about 14 percent of the population f young teen and adult users use the service and the company reports about 200 million registered users, though its monthly active user count is likely lower.
Bytedance indicates that it intends to let Musical.ly continue to operate as a standalone service.
