THINK b – stock.adobe.com
Shenzhen-based electronics giant Konka unveiled its cooperation with Smartisan OS, the original R&D for Smartisan which was acquired by ByteDance, to develop a smart screen operating system on Monday, 18 April. Konka introduced a new smart television series powered by ByteDance’s new operating system MEyou OS.
Co-developed with Konka, MEyou OS marks ByteDance’s first foray into the large-screen operating software market, offering a platform that has a more intuitive search function, supports gesture control, and enables content from several devices to be shown simultaneously on a single TV.
Why it matters
MEyou OS is expected to help revive the relevance of large TV screens due to an increasing need to work and study from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Zou Wei, director of ByteDance’s Smartisan OS unit.
MEyou OS pits ByteDance against Huawei, which introduced its own Harmony OS 2.0 platform for various smart devices in 2021.
Context
According to Zhu Zhongqing, the general manager of Konka China’s Marketing Division, after 2017 overall sales of the colour TV industry in China were decreasing due to the reduced demand for replacements and the growing use of smartphones. However, with the rapid popularization of 5G, demand is rising for large-screen devices to play games, shop, do online courses, and listen to music, which has become a new market growth point.
Konka has previously introduced a rotating screen that supports watching videos in horizontal and vertical positions. Compared with smartphones, the TV screen represents a new scenario within which ByteDance apps like Douyin and Xigua Video can be applied to reach more users.
