ByteDance, the company which owns famous social media platform TikTok, has said that it will be soon developing its own smartphone. As per a report by news agency Reuters, the TikTok owner has confirmed its plans for making a self-branded smartphone following its deal with Smartisan Technology, a smartphone maker based in China. The plan of a smartphone is a continuation of earlier Smartisan plans, the report said quoting a ByteDance spokeswoman. At present it is not clear if the device will run on Android or some other operating system. There are no details about the specifications of the upcoming phone from TikTok's parent company. The said phone has been in development for around seven months, and the effort is being led by Wu Dezhou, a former executive at Smartisan, according to the report, which is based on China's Caijing news outlet. The company through its TikTok platform has developed significantly over the past few years. It has also expanded into the messaging service by launching Flipchat (aka Feiliao) in China earlier this year. Apart from this, it is also planning to launch a music streaming service of its own according to a Bloomberg report. TikTok has over 120 million users in India. It claims to have 500 million global monthly active users. But TikTok has not had a smooth ride, especially in India. Back in April this year, the Madras High Court had asked the central government to ban downloads of TikTok on concerns of obscenity and endangering children on the platform. Both Google Play Store and Apple App Store had later removed the app from their respective stores. However, those who already had the app could continue to use the same. The High Court later lifted the ban on downloads and TikTok had removed over six million videos on its platform and assured more stricter moderation of content. Also Read|TikTok videos: DGP issues circular on social media conduct for cops The video content app was again in trouble earlier this month after the government expressed its worries about "anti-national" and "anti-social elements" on TikTok and Helo in a list of 24 questions sent by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to the social media platforms. TikTok then announced that it will establish its data centre in India.
