A new TikTok clone hit the top of the App Store by paying users to watch videos

guest · May 30, 2020

A new TikTok clone hit the top of the App Store by paying users to watch videos
Meet Zynn
May 29, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/...one-pay-watch-videos-kuaishou-bytedance-rival

TikTok has a new competitor: Zynn, a nearly button-for-button clone of TikTok that differentiates itself with one key twist — it pays users to sign up, watch videos, and convince others to follow suit. The app launched at the beginning of May, and as Mashable noticed, it’s now the number one free app in Apple’s App Store and in the top 10 on Google’s Play Store, too.

Zynn is fully a TikTok clone. The core interface is identical, and both are oriented around watching short portrait-orientation videos. The big distinction is a countdown timer with a dollar sign in the middle that hovers over every video on Zynn. As you watch videos, the timer fills up and gives you points, which you’re supposed to be able to redeem later as cash or gift cards
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The app didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, despite what it seems. As The Information reported yesterday, Zynn is the extension of a rivalry over video apps in China. Zynn’s creator, Kuaishou, is a well-funded startup that runs one of the biggest video apps in the country.

Kuaishou recently received a $2 billion investment from Tencent, the Chinese tech giant behind WeChat. The Information reported in December that the investment was meant to help Tencent “contain the threat of ByteDance,” which makes TikTok and Douyin.
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Zynn seems to have grown so quickly for a couple of reasons. There’s the paying users to watch videos, obviously (I was able to get $0.12 by watching videos for what felt like a few minutes). [...]
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guest · Jun 10, 2020

Zynn, the Hot New Video App, Is Full of Stolen Content
Multiple influencers told WIRED that their videos had been copied from other platforms and reposted to Zynn without permission
June 9, 2020
https://www.wired.com/story/zynn-hot-new-video-app-stolen-content/

LATE LAST MONTH, a mysterious new video app called Zynn began appearing at the top of app store charts, beating out household names like Instagram and YouTube. Zynn is a near identical copy of TikTok, and both apps are the product of Chinese tech giants.

As of Tuesday, however, Zynn is no longer available for download from the Google Play Store, and a link that previously went to the app’s listing is now dead. It’s unclear why the app was removed, and Google did not immediately comment. A spokesperson for Apple said it was looking into Zynn but did not have any additional information as of publication.
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Four influencers who spoke to WIRED said videos they originally published to TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube were uploaded to Zynn without their consent, under accounts they didn’t open.

“I didn’t create this,” Max Mazurek, a Polish dancer and model with almost 190,000 TikTok followers, said after WIRED showed him a Zynn profile using his name.
The launch of a new social media platform often sets off a rush to grab famous or valuable usernames, and it’s not uncommon for scammers to impersonate celebrities on social media.

Tiffany Hunt, a makeup artist with over 2 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, said she also had no idea someone was impersonating her on Zynn. “Never heard of this app, certainly never posted to it,” she said.
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guest · Jun 16, 2020

TikTok clone Zynn has now been removed from the iOS App Store as well
The app was taken off Google’s Play Store last week following reports of plagiarism
June 16, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/16/...one-removed-ios-app-store-plagiarism-payments

Zynn, the Chinese video sharing app that’s a near button-for-button clone of TikTok, has been removed from Apple’s App Store. The app was previously taken down from Google’s Play Store last week after reports of plagiarism on the platform, and had attracted controversy for a reward scheme that paid users to watch videos and sign up friends.

Prior to the app’s removal from the App Store, a spokesperson for Zynn told The Verge that its issues with plagiarism were minor, and that the company was “in communication with both Google and Apple to ensure compliance with their guidelines and regulations.”

“We understand this happened due to complaints raised on user-uploaded videos,” said the spokesperson, referring to the app’s removal from the Play Store.
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guest · Jun 17, 2020

Zynn removes controversial pay to watch feature after being banned by Apple and Google
It’s replaced by Zynncheers, which currently offers no rewards
June 17, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/21294567/zynn-pay-feature-removed-zynncheers-new-rewards-system

Zynn is no longer paying users to watch videos and refer friends to the app, a practice that quickly rocketed the TikTok clone to the top of both Apple and Google’s app stores.

The payment feature is being replaced with a new rewards system called Zynncheers. Zynncheers still gives users points for watching videos (now in addition to commenting on and liking videos). The big distinction is that there are currently no rewards being offered in exchange for the points — not money or anything else.
In the app, Zynn says users will get “benefits and rewards” for collecting Zynncheers, but it doesn’t say what those will be.

“We have some plans about the use of Zynncheers, but we need your ideas [sic] more,” the company writes.
The Verge has reached out to Zynn for comment.
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There’s really no reason to use Zynn over TikTok aside from its cash rewards. It is beat for beat the same app but with a much smaller number of users making new videos. On the Zynn subreddit, users are already posting in frustration about the new system. “This app is complete [***] now,” one person wrote. Another thread added, “This update s[***].”
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guest · Jul 21, 2020

TikTok clone Zynn returns, replacing cash rewards with useless Zynncheers points
What are Zynncheers points good for? Nobody knows
July 21, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/21/...urn-ios-android-zyncheers-points-cash-payouts

Controversial Chinese video app Zynn has returned to iOS and Android after being booted from both platforms following reports of plagiarism and complaints about a pay-to-watch system that one media watchdog described as a “pyramid scheme.”

The app returned to Google’s Play Store on July 2nd and Apple’s App Store on July 16th, but users are frustrated by the changes it’s made, particularly to the reward system that helped boost Zynn to the top of app download charts earlier this year.
On social media, Zynn users have been responding to the company’s posts to vent their frustrations, complaining that the main function of Zynncheers seems to be stopping them from cashing out any money they’d previously accumulated.

“What are Zynn cheers for? Just wondering lol,” says one user. Another asks: “can zynncheers be useful already, i need money.”
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hayc59 · Jul 21, 2020

Tik Tok is a real bad idea!!

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