The halt on new registrations had not been
previously reported. Some content creators have said on social media that they
couldn't register for new accounts on Toutiao. The reason for the blockage
could not be immediately determined. Toutiao's app can still be downloaded and
existing users can use it.
ByteDance declined to comment. The sources
declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.
The Cyberspace Administration of China
(CAC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which oversee
Toutiao's operations, did not reply to requests for comment.
China has been reining in its massive and
once free-wheeling "platform economy" on concerns ranging from the
appropriateness of content to anti-competitive behaviours and, increasingly,
data security. Earlier this month, the CAC announced a probe into ride-hailing
firm Didi Global, citing cybersecurity and national security concerns, with a
ban on new user registrations just days after it went public in a $4.4 billion
New York share sale, rattling the industry and investors.
The regulator followed up with the removal
of Didi and its affiliated apps from Chinese app stores.
Toutiao is ByteDance's second-largest ad
revenue source in China, after Douyin, Reuters has reported, accounting for
around 20% of sales in the country last year, or about 36 billion yuan ($5.57
billion). ByteDance raked in $34.3 billion in total revenue last year.
When trying to sign up to Toutiao, new
users see a message: "System is currently under maintenance. Registration
is temporarily unavailable." New content creators receive a similar
message.
Jinri Toutiao, which means "today's
headline" in Chinese, uses an artificial intelligence-driven
recommendation system to offer personalised news feeds.
This is not the first time the news
aggregator has been penalised by authorities. In 2018, Chinese regulators
ordered app stores to remove Toutiao for three weeks, citing "vulgar
content".
ByteDance, which was valued at $300 billion
in recent private trades, had planned earlier this year to list some of its
businesses including TikTok's Chinese version Douyin in Hong Kong, sources
said. In April, ByteDance said it had no imminent plans to list itself.
In 2018, ByteDance's joke app Neihan Duanzi
was permanently shut for hosting what the country's broadcasting watchdog said
was "vulgar" and "improper" content that had triggered
"strong resentment among users".