The app, called Douyin Search, is available for download on multiple Android app stores. However, as of August 22, it has not yet appeared on Apple's App Store.

Developed by Beijing Douyin Technology, the app bills itself as “practical and trustworthy,” offering “powerful search and accurate recommendations” from short video platform Douyin.

The app is also powered by ByteDance's artificial intelligence (AI)-based recommendation system.

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ByteDance seeks to challenge Baidu's dominance in search. Photo: SCMP

This is the fifth time ByteDance has built a search app, following Toutiao Search, Toutiao Search Lite, Wukong Search, and Shandian Search. Only Toutiao Search Lite is still available for download from major app stores.

The main Toutiao Search app has been revamped into a Youshi content community, and Wukong Search has become an AI assistant.

Douyin Search is the latest in a series of efforts by tech giants to leverage their dominance in specific areas to challenge Baidu's dominance in the search market.

In 2021, Tencent Holdings acquired Sogou, another popular search engine in China, then shut down the mobile app a year later.

In 2016, Alibaba Group Holding, also launched its Quark search engine.

Despite recent controversies, Baidu maintains tight control over Internet search in China.

According to StatCounter, a web traffic analytics company, the company had a 52% market share as of July, followed by Microsoft's Bing, 360 Search and Sogou with 32, 7 and 4% respectively.

(According to SCMP)

ByteDance says it would 'rather shut down' than sell TikTok ByteDance, the parent company that owns TikTok, said it would cease operations in the US if legal solutions failed to prevent a ban on the short video sharing platform in the world's number one economy.