In China, TikTok is known as Douyin, and the video-sharing app just added a new feature viewers understandably dislike.
As the South China Morning Post reports, Douyin and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance now injects a mandatory five-second pause between some videos in China. The goal is to reduce the chance of addiction, and the pause is triggered by a user spending too long continuously watching videos. It’s unclear how long is too long, though.
The pause cannot be swiped away and plays one of six videos produced with the help of Chinese band Phoenix Legend. They contain phrases including “put down the phone,” “go to bed,” and “work tomorrow” in an attempt to get the viewer to stop watching an endless stream of content and go do something else more productive.
Last month, Douyin introduced a new teenager mode which required real-name use for children aged 14 and under, but also limited them to 40 minutes of viewing a day between 6am and 10pm. There’s also a big push by the Chinese government to reduce the amount of time spent watching algorithm-driven content. ByteDance is clearly attempting to stay in the government’s good books even if it means upsetting its user base.
Users are unsurprisingly reacting negatively to the new feature, with some thinking their phone had broken when trying to swipe away the pause videos didn’t work. It seems unlikely ByteDance will reverse course and users will simply have to get used to them. In fact, there’s probably more chance of the pause getting longer than there is of it being removed.
