TikTok owners are reportedly launching a new music streaming service

Felio could be launched as early as this year

The owners of popular video-sharing app TikTok look set to launch a new music streaming service.

According to news outlet 36Kr, ByteDance – the company behind TikTok – is set to launch the service which will be available exclusively in China.

The news outlet claims the new service will be called Felio and report that “multiple independent sources” have claimed that the streaming service will be led by ByteDance’s Vice President of Product and Strategy, Alex Zhu.

The reported development of Felio comes just one year after ByteDance’s launch of another music streaming platform in India called Resso. It was set up to rival streaming giants Spotify.

The Independent has contacted TikTok for comment.

TikTok’s popularity meanwhile, has grown , with users watching videos on TikTok longer than they are on YouTube in both the UK and the US, according to a new report.

The report came via app monitoring firm App Annie, which said that the average time per user spent on the TikTok and YouTube apps is higher on TikTok.

YouTube still retains the top spot for overall time spent on apps, but not per user. YouTube has more users overall than TikTok, with an estimated two billion monthly users whereas TikTok has around 700 million.

“YouTube still leads TikTok in overall time spent, including in the UK,” Jamie MacEwan, from Enders Analysis, told the BBC. “YouTube’s mass audience means it’s getting more demographics that are comparatively light internet users… it’s just reaching everyone who’s online.”

TikTok is currently ranked the most downloaded app worldwide since 2020.