Probably this is the first book which dives in depth into the background of Zhang Yiming, the founder of Bytedance, and the surprise is that he used to work for China’s twitter clone, Fanfou (started by Wang Xing, now founder and CEO of Meituan-Dianping) and was shut down by the authorities.What are the key misconceptions about Tik Tok and ByteDance? Tik Tok and ByteDance are often characterized by Western commentators and media as a threat to Facebook, Twitter and even to the US government itself.Who are the major audiences that you want to target in this book?.What is the inspiration behind writing this book?.“Attention Factory - The Story of Tik Tok and China’s ByteDance” by Matthew Brennan.First question: what have you been up to since our last conversation? As the highest recurring guest on the podcast, it’s great to welcome you back.Matthew Brennan, Co-founder of China Channel and author of “ (, , Linkedin, Wechat:Yowdy-CQ).Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion: Last but not least, Matthew debunked the common misconceptions on Tik Tok and ByteDance, explained how their business models work and offered a glimpse to the challenges ahead for the company in the near future. He discuss the backstory of Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance and how he learned from his past experiences to build Toutiao first before embarking on Douyin that eventually led to Tik Tok. Matthew began with the inspiration and the key themes behind the first English book specifically focused on ByteDance, observing the rise of the company. In episode 334, Matthew Brennan returned to discuss his new book 'Attention Factory: The Story of Tik Tok & China's ByteDance'.

Attention Factory by Matthew Brennan