抖音 (Douyin)

Tools for the platformMeltwater

RegionChina

Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.

Overview

抖音 (Douyin) is a Chinese short-video app made by ByteDance. It is not "the Chinese TikTok" in the sense of a different language version of one product: Douyin has its own app, its own publisher, its own open platform and its own advertising system. In the Chinese App Store the app's developer is listed as Beijing Douyin Technology Co., Ltd., while the open platform's rules name the legal entity as 北京微播视界科技有限公司 (Beijing Weibo Shijie / Microlive Vision) (App Store CN, the open platform's 运营规范).

The platform itself describes what it does as a «短视频平台», short video that helps a user express themselves and record a good life (the mini-program documentation). In the app store the publisher lists live broadcasts, vertical mini-series 短剧, effects, a long-video section 抖音精选 and a "mode for the older generation" 长辈模式 (App Store CN).

For a marketer another aspect of the structure matters more: working with Douyin is split across four separate dashboards — the open platform for developers (developer.open-douyin.com), the advertising system 巨量引擎 (Ocean Engine), the creator marketplace 巨量星图 (Xingtu) and the commerce arm 抖音电商. Each lives on its own domain with its own registration.

Who's here

ByteDance publishes no financial reporting and names no official figure for Douyin's active users. All the "600 million DAU" numbers and the like that circulate in reviews are second-hand retellings.

What we managed to confirm from the platform itself:

in the Chinese App Store the app has 52.07 million ratings with an average score of 4.9, the build size is 1.4 GB, the age rating is 18+, and in the "Entertainment" section the app sits at number 9 (App Store CN);
two interface languages are declared: Chinese plus one more (same source);
the official mini-program developer chat, according to the open platform, holds 10,000+ developers (the open platform's 概述).

Geography. Douyin is a product for mainland China: all the documentation and all the dashboards are in Chinese, and the open platform documentation has no language switcher. The home page www.douyin.com returned a browser check page ("Please wait…") at the time of the check.

Getting started

Developer registration

The open platform describes onboarding in several steps: registering an account, then 入驻 proper (submitting an organization's application), industry certification of a role and mutual recognition of qualifications with 抖店, Douyin's merchant dashboard. Changing the linked entity, recovering and closing an account are documented separately (入驻: an overview of the operations).

The requirements for an organization are listed in the operating rules: the business must be lawful, the company name and licence number must be filled in correctly, the licence must be valid and carry no violation marks, and the scan must be clear. Organizations that by their nature cannot supply an ordinary licence submit a document matching their status. In addition, a joining statement on the platform's template bearing the organization's seal is required (运营规范).

One prohibition worth reading before you apply: a developer's name and trade name may not hint that Douyin or ByteDance takes part in the project, sponsors it or endorses it — including any variants, abbreviations and misspellings of the words «抖音», «字节跳动», "Douyin", "ByteDance" and the names of affiliated companies (same source).

Types of participant

The platform divides developers by type, and the set of available permissions depends on the type (角色概述):

自研开发者 — a "developer for oneself": available to everyone registered, granting the basic set of permissions;
系统服务商 — a system service provider: develops applications for Douyin creators and merchants, or provides them with offline services covering filming, content creation and account management; on top of the basic set it receives «生活服务» permissions — POI points, the product database, the commerce system.

Both categories can go through 企业号 (corporate account) certification: this speeds up verification of the organization's details and opens a separate «企业号开放能力» block (same source).

In another section of the documentation the platform describes a split by business model: 自营开发者 (own business — brands and merchants), 综合运营平台开发者 (shop aggregators) and 代运营平台开发者 — agencies that run clients' accounts. The agency model is acknowledged by the platform outright, with a description of an agency's right to create mini-programs for its clients (概述).

Your first application

An application is created in the console: "Mobile applications" → "Create", then you set the name and the category. The documentation warns that an application created this way is a test one: operations with it have no effect on the production environment, and for commercial use it has to be taken live separately (creating a mobile and web application).

What you can publish

Video

The limits on uploading video through the official interface are stated precisely (the upload_video method):

video larger than 50 MB is recommended to be uploaded in parts, to reduce the chance of a gateway timeout;
video larger than 300 MB must be uploaded in parts;
the total size must be within 4 GB;
one chunk is recommended at 20 MB, with a minimum of 5 MB;
for the best viewing experience the platform recommends vertical video with a 16:9 ratio and a resolution of 720p (1280×720) or above;
common formats are supported, with mp4 and webm recommended.

From the same page's error table: code 2190005 ("file too large") appears when 300 MB is exceeded, and code 2114006 states directly that the video duration may not exceed 15 minutes.

Title and presentation

In the publishing flow from a mini-app the video title is limited to 60 characters; user mentions (@), stickers and "anchors" linking a mini-program are supported (发布抖音视频). Note that this page carries a warning from the platform itself that the document is being phased out and will not be maintained — it recommends moving to the «转发和挂载» section.

Requirements for the developer's own application

The rules for reviewing applications are precise and useful as an indicator of the platform's general style (运营规范):

the application name may use only Chinese characters, digits and Latin letters, with no special characters, spaces or traditional characters, and must be 2–10 characters long;
the name may not be a generic category ("calendar", "mail", "mini-games"), a purely geographical name, or a "region + category" combination; a combination of at least two words is required;
the icon must be a square image with no rounded corners, in JPEG or PNG format, no larger than 500 KB; a QR code as an icon is forbidden;
the description may not use "state-level", "top-level" and other wording forbidden by Chinese advertising law, nor invitations, codes, phone numbers or addresses.

How to grow

Advertising: 巨量引擎 (Ocean Engine)

ByteDance's advertising system serves more than Douyin. Its home page lists the placement surfaces: 抖音, 抖音开屏 (the launch screen), 抖音Feed, 抖音搜索, 穿山甲 (Pangle), 今日头条, 西瓜视频, as well as the tools 巨量学, 巨量星图, 巨量云图 and 即创 (oceanengine.com). The advertising streams are laid out by objective: branding, search marketing, e-commerce, local business, content downloads, lead collection, self-service for small business and "marketing science" (same source).

The product set is described there too: 开机位 — the first screen when the app launches, 信息流 — a native in-feed placement with targeting, 互动营销 — mechanics involving the user, 种草加热 — "heating up" organic content.

The training side is hived off into a separate portal, 巨量学 (school.oceanengine.com), with courses on 巨量千川 (advertising for e-commerce), search, auction advertising, 随心推 and corporate accounts. The same portal publishes a «最新规则» section with dated rules — for instance «素材计划通用审核规范» dated 14 January 2026.

Creators: 巨量星图 (Xingtu)

The official marketplace where brands work with creators. The dashboard is divided into four roles — client, creator (达人), MCN agency and service provider — and separate instructions are published for each: how to sign up, how to post and manage tasks, how to select creators in the "marketplace", how a creator sets a price and how to withdraw money (提现), how an MCN manages creators and accepts tasks on their behalf (xingtu.cn). The platform's operator is given as 武汉巨量星图科技有限公司 (same source).

Results, as the platform describes them, are assessed on five metrics: the reach of the post, search behaviour, conversion, "audience assets" and the viewer profile (same source).

The algorithm

Douyin does not publish the mechanics of its recommendations. The only thing the platform says about how attention is distributed in the documentation is that mini-programs get traffic from public surfaces: live broadcasts, the feed, a corporate account's home page and search (概述). There are no "weights" and no "ranking factors" in the primary sources.

Path to monetization

The open documentation describes no direct rules for paying creators per view. The ways of getting money that the platform confirms are these.

Brand orders through 巨量星图. A creator registers, sets a price for the collaboration formats and withdraws what they earn; the deposit and withdrawal procedure is described in the platform's help materials (xingtu.cn). There are no specific thresholds, fees or payout timings on the public part of the site — they sit behind authorization.

Commerce. Douyin's e-commerce arm has its own training portal with sections on "rules", "features", "courses" and "case studies", laid out by stage: seller onboarding, opening a shop, working with products and the storefront, traffic, live streams, short video, search, promotion through 巨量千川 and collaboration with creators (抖音电商学习中心). The rules section itself only opens after signing in.

Mini-programs as a storefront. The open platform lists the commercial capabilities of mini-programs: guaranteed payment (担保支付), support management, subscription messages, placing a mini-program inside a short video and inside a live broadcast, and the roles of ad publisher (流量主) and advertiser (概述).

In-app subscriptions. The publisher discloses prices in the App Store: 汽水音乐 (Qishui Music) — 8 yuan a month or 88 yuan a year, the short-series card 抖音短剧 — 15 yuan a month, 汽水音乐 SVIP — 18 yuan a month or 158 yuan a year (App Store CN). This is revenue for the platform, not for creators.

Tools and automation

The official API

Douyin does have an API, it is laid out by access permission, and some capabilities open only after an application in the console (the permissions scheme). The basic permission groups are as follows:

抖音授权 — sign-in through a Douyin account (the user_info scope) and obtaining an access token; enabled by default, no application required;
内容能力 — publishing content to Douyin on a user's behalf (aweme.share), using the capture module (aweme.capture), the H5 flow (h5.share); disabled by default, enabled on application in the console;
投稿任务 — creating and tracking publishing tasks, linking videos, verifying completion;
数据 — follower statistics: sources, preferences, profile (data.external.fans_source, fans.data.bind);
互动评论 — obtaining deep links to a video, a profile, a live stream or a chat (jump.basic);
私信群聊 — sending an image or a link in direct messages and groups (im.share).

The «代替用户发布内容到抖音» permission (publishing on a user's behalf) is requested separately, through "Capability management → Capability laboratory" in the console, and additionally requires authorization from the user themselves (upload_video). The base address of the OAuth interfaces is https://open.douyin.com/ (same source).

Mini-programs

For mini-programs the platform provides its own IDE and sandbox, technical documentation, a developer community and a ticket system (概述). The ability to migrate mini-programs from other open platforms is declared separately (the mini-program overview).

Third-party services

We have no third-party schedulers with confirmed Douyin support among those we checked: not one of the vendors whose documentation we opened declares such support. The model the platform itself recognizes is a service provider or an agency (代运营平台开发者) working through the official API with explicitly granted permissions (角色概述).

Limits and rules

The sanctions for violations are described in the operating rules in ascending order (运营规范):

沟通警告 — a warning by email or phone requiring a self-audit and the removal of the violation by a set deadline;
限期整改 — remediation within a deadline; while it is under way the affected permissions are unavailable, and after remediation an appeal may be filed;
账号封禁 — withdrawal of some platform permissions, up to blocking the account for serious violations.

From the same source, the data requirements: when working with a contractor you must have a contract with them restricting the use of the data obtained; once use of the services ends, the developer is obliged to delete all data obtained immediately, including backup copies; a leak must be reported to the platform, and the developer must assist with the investigation.

The rules may change without separate notice: changes are published in the announcements block on the open platform's home page and take effect from the moment of publication; continuing to use the services counts as agreement to the new version (same source). On top of these rules the developer is obliged to comply with Douyin's own «用户服务协议» and «隐私政策» (same source).

There is one country-specific feature, and it is the main one: Douyin operates within the legal framework of the PRC. The app's age rating in the Chinese store is 18+ (App Store CN), and the advertising rules refer directly to Chinese advertising law (运营规范).

Who it's for

Douyin makes sense if your buyer is in mainland China and you have a Chinese legal entity: an application to the open platform requires a licence and a statement bearing the organization's seal (运营规范). The work is built not around "posting" but around the chain "short video → live broadcast → mini-program or shop", and the levers of growth are advertising in Ocean Engine and buying content from creators through Xingtu.

The platform suits agencies: the model of running other people's accounts (代运营平台开发者) is described explicitly in the documentation, with its own set of permissions (概述).

It does not suit you if you expect to run an account remotely without a Chinese legal entity, to work in several languages, or to reuse material from TikTok without reworking it: these are different products with different rules and different moderation, and they share no documentation.

Tools for this platform

The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.

Social listening:

Meltwater — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28

Verified data

The checked data this deep dive rests on.

About the platform

the legal entity of the open platform is named in the rules as 北京微播视界科技有限公司; the app's developer in the Chinese App Store is listed as Beijing Douyin Technology Co., Ltd.

The second entity is confirmed by the app listing https://apps.apple.com/cn/app/id1142110895

source, checked 2026-07-28

Who's here

there is no official figure for Douyin's active users from the primary source: ByteDance is a private company and publishes no reporting. What the app listing confirms: 52.07 million ratings with an average score of 4.9 and 9th place in the "Entertainment" category of the Chinese App Store

Values circulating in reviews such as "600 million DAU" are second-hand retellings and are not accepted into the registry

source, checked 2026-07-28

Getting started

onboarding to the open platform is described in steps: registering an account, 入驻 (submitting an organization's application), industry certification of a role and mutual recognition of qualifications with 抖店; changing the linked entity, recovering and closing an account and transferring super-admin rights are documented separately

source, checked 2026-07-28

requirements for an organization: a lawful business, a correctly stated name and licence number, a valid licence with no violation marks, a clear scan; organizations that by their nature cannot supply an ordinary licence submit a document matching their status; in addition, a joining statement on the platform's template bearing the organization's seal is required

source, checked 2026-07-28

an application created in the console is a TEST one: operations with it have no effect on the production environment, and for commercial use the application has to be taken live separately

source, checked 2026-07-28

Account and access

developers are DIVIDED by the platform into «自营开发者» (own business: brands and merchants) and «综合类平台开发者» — aggregators, and separately «代运营平台开发者», that is agencies running clients' accounts. The agency model is acknowledged by the platform explicitly, with a description of the permissions

source, checked 2026-07-28

types of open platform user: 自研开发者 (available to everyone registered, basic permissions) and 系统服务商 (developing applications for creators and merchants, or offline services covering filming and account management; on top of the basic set, 生活服务 permissions: POI points, the product database, the commerce system). Both categories can go through 企业号 certification

The translation is ours, the original is Chinese

source, checked 2026-07-28

the split by business model: 自营开发者 (own business — brands and merchants), 综合运营平台开发者 (shop aggregators) and 代运营平台开发者 — agencies that run clients' accounts and are entitled to create mini-programs for them

The agency model is acknowledged by the platform outright

source, checked 2026-07-28

Business terms

抖音电商学习中心 publishes "rules", "features", "courses" and "case studies" sections by stage: seller onboarding, opening a shop, products and the storefront, traffic, live streams, short video, search, promotion through 巨量千川, collaboration with creators; the rules section itself opens only after signing in

source, checked 2026-07-28

What you can publish

the platform recommends vertical video with a 16:9 ratio and a resolution of 720p (1280x720) or above; common formats are supported, with mp4 and webm recommended

The source words this as a recommendation, not a hard requirement

source, checked 2026-07-28

Advertising

the 巨量引擎 (Ocean Engine) advertising system places ads on 抖音, 抖音开屏, 抖音Feed, 抖音搜索, 穿山甲 (Pangle), 今日头条, 西瓜视频; the products are 开机位 (the launch screen), 信息流 (native in-feed), 互动营销, 种草加热; the tools are 巨量学, 巨量星图, 巨量云图, 即创

The translation is ours, the original is Chinese

source, checked 2026-07-28

the rules and training are hived off to the 巨量学 portal; it publishes a 最新规则 section with dated documents, for instance «素材计划通用审核规范» dated 14 January 2026

source, checked 2026-07-28

How the money works here

"Juliang Xingtu" (巨量星图, xingtu.cn) — Douyin's official platform for paid tasks from advertisers. Task types: an assigned video (抖音指派任务), a fixed-price text-and-image post (抖音图文一口价任务), a short video contest (抖音短视频投稿任务), a text-and-image contest (抖音图文投稿任务), an assigned live stream (直播指派任务), a live stream with goods (直播达人进播任务), a live stream contest (直播投稿任务), creator recruitment (招募任务), joint creation (共创任务), commissioned short series (招商短剧), "Xingguang Liantou" (星广联投)

our translation, the original is in Chinese; the page of Douyin itself (www.douyin.com) cannot be read without executing scripts, the rules are published on ByteDance's official tool "Xingtu"

source, checked 2026-08-04

Who is admitted. There are no requirements on the number of subscribers for registration in Xingtu (入驻时无粉丝量要求), but each task type has its own threshold: an assigned video — at least 100,000 subscribers (粉丝量≥10万) and at least 500 "valid" subscribers (有效粉丝≥500); a fixed-price text-and-image post and text-and-image contests — from 1,000 subscribers (≥1千); a short video contest — from 10,000 (≥1万); an assigned live stream — from 1,000 subscribers, 200 valid ones and at least 3 streams of 25 minutes over the last 14 days; creator recruitment — from 10,000 to 5,000,000 subscribers. Healthy channel content and no violations for 30 days are required

our translation, the original is in Chinese

source, checked 2026-08-04

Creator's share. The creator receives the task amount less the platform's payment fee: an individual creator (自然人达人) and a "PGC creator" pay 5% of the total amount of the commission for the task (任务服务费总金额的5%), an MCN agency — 3%. An example from the help centre: at a task price of 10,000 yuan, 9,500 yuan is available for withdrawal

our translation, the original is in Chinese; the example is given at https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/author/109200

source, checked 2026-08-04

When they pay. Withdrawal is on the creator's request, not on a schedule: after pressing "withdraw" the money takes up to 72 hours (提交后72小时内等待到账). Before that the task must be accepted: for assigned, joint and series tasks — acceptance by the client, and if the client has not accepted, then 7 days after publication acceptance is deemed to have taken place; for contest tasks acceptance is not required

our translation, the original is in Chinese; the acceptance deadlines are per https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/author/133057

source, checked 2026-08-04

How they pay. An individual withdraws to a personal Alipay account (支付宝) or to a bank card (银行卡); a corporate Alipay is not supported. If the creator has moved to studio status (工作室), only withdrawal to a bank card is available. A creator attached to an MCN agency does not withdraw themselves: the platform pays the agency, and the agency settles with the creator at the agreed share

our translation, the original is in Chinese

source, checked 2026-08-04

the official 巨量星图 marketplace for brand-creator collaboration is divided into four roles: client, creator (达人), MCN agency and service provider; instructions are published for each on signing up, posting tasks, a creator setting a price and withdrawing funds (提现); the operator is 武汉巨量星图科技有限公司

The instructions themselves and the payout thresholds sit behind authorization

source, checked 2026-07-28

the open platform lists the commercial capabilities of mini-programs: guaranteed payment (担保支付), support management, subscription messages, placing a mini-program inside a short video and inside a live broadcast, and the roles of ad publisher (流量主) and advertiser

source, checked 2026-07-28

Where it is available. There is no direct list of countries. From the rules it follows that settlement takes place only inside mainland China: the settlement currency is the yuan, for withdrawal a Chinese identity document (实名认证, 身份证) and a personal Alipay or a Chinese bank card must be linked; the separate provision about Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and other territories outside mainland China concerns only clients, not creators

our translation, the original is in Chinese; the information about the withdrawal requirements is from the page https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/author/109200

source, checked 2026-08-04

There is no separate rule about affiliate links. Earning on other people's goods is arranged through the Douyin "cart" (抖音购物车, the 商品分享 feature): it has rules of its own, in particular the product card and the description must not carry extraneous information — logos of external sites, contact accounts, QR codes and other advertising inserts (不得出现外部网站的logo、联系账号、二维码等投放信息); only a product the creator has actually used may be recommended

our translation, the original is in Chinese; the platform publishes the full set of cart rules at https://school.jinritemai.com/buyin/web/article/102117

source, checked 2026-08-04

Pricing

in-app subscriptions: 汽水音乐 — 8 yuan a month or 88 yuan a year, the short-series card 抖音短剧 — 15 yuan a month, 汽水音乐 SVIP — 18 yuan a month or 158 yuan a year

This is revenue for the platform, not for creators

source, checked 2026-07-28

Limits and restrictions

video larger than 50 MB is recommended to be uploaded in parts, to reduce the chance of a gateway timeout; video larger than 300 MB must be uploaded in parts; the total size must be within 4 GB; one chunk is recommended at 20 MB, with a minimum of 5 MB

The translation is ours, the original is Chinese

source, checked 2026-07-28

the video duration may not exceed 15 minutes — this is recorded in the error table as code 2114006; a file larger than 300 MB gives code 2190005, "file too large"

The limit is published not in the text of the rules but in the description of the error codes

source, checked 2026-07-28

the video title when publishing from a mini-app is limited to 60 characters; user mentions, stickers and anchors linking a mini-program are supported

The page carries a warning from the platform that the document is being phased out and that moving to the 转发和挂载 section is recommended

source, checked 2026-07-28

Restrictions

the application name: only Chinese characters, digits and Latin letters, with no special characters, spaces or traditional characters, 2-10 characters long; it may not be a generic category, a purely geographical name or a "region + category" combination; a combination of at least two words is required

The translation is ours, the original is Chinese

source, checked 2026-07-28

the application icon: a square image with no rounded corners, in JPEG or PNG format, no larger than 500 KB; a QR code as an icon is forbidden; using another person's likeness requires confirmed consent

source, checked 2026-07-28

the name and trade name of a developer organization may not hint at the platform's participation, sponsorship or endorsement: you may not use «抖音», «字节跳动», "Douyin", "ByteDance", the names of affiliated companies or any variants, abbreviations or misspellings of them

source, checked 2026-07-28

sanctions in ascending order: 沟通警告 — a warning by email or phone requiring a self-audit and removal of the violation by a deadline; 限期整改 — remediation within a deadline, during which the affected permissions are unavailable; 账号封禁 — withdrawal of some permissions, up to blocking the account

source, checked 2026-07-28

the app's age rating in the Chinese App Store is 18+; the build size is 1.4 GB, and two interface languages are declared

source, checked 2026-07-28

Legal

once use of the open platform's services ends, the developer is obliged to delete IMMEDIATELY all data obtained, including backup copies, and to make no further use of it; when working with a contractor you must have a contract with them restricting the use of the data; a leak must be reported to the platform by the developer

source, checked 2026-07-28

the rules may change without separate notice: changes are published in the announcements block on the open platform's home page and take effect from the moment of publication; continuing to use the services counts as agreement

source, checked 2026-07-28

API access

two models of openness: «能力开放» (opening up capabilities) and «行业开放» (industry opening). The first gives you work with Douyin and Toutiao accounts, the second ready-made industry solutions for catering, travel and education. The translation is ours, the original is Chinese

source, checked 2026-07-28

Capabilities. declared are video publishing and retrieval of video data, user data and rankings (榜单), as well as guaranteed payment, support management and subscription messages for mini-apps. The translation is ours

source, checked 2026-07-28

the base address of the OAuth interfaces is https://open.douyin.com/; the «代替用户发布内容到抖音» permission (publishing on a user's behalf) is requested through Capability management > Capability laboratory in the console and additionally requires authorization from the user themselves

The scope of the video upload method is video.create.bind

source, checked 2026-07-28

the basic permission groups: 抖音授权 (sign-in through an account, the user_info scope — enabled by default), 内容能力 (publishing on a user's behalf via aweme.share, the capture module aweme.capture, the H5 flow h5.share — on application), 投稿任务, follower data (data.external.fans_source, fans.data.bind), 互动评论 (jump.basic), 私信群聊 (im.share)

Permissions from every group except 抖音授权 are DISABLED by default and are enabled by an application in the console

source, checked 2026-07-28

Languages

the interface language of the home page: en

The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang

source, checked 2026-07-28

Catalogue section: all similar See also: catalogue index · region: China · scheduler comparison · find by situation · platform restrictions