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Singapore-based Likee, led by a former factory worker, is gaining ground on TikTok

  • Likee, a short video app owned by Singapore-based BIGO Technology, is now the seventh-most downloaded non-gaming app in the world
  • The short video app market, dominated by TikTok, is worth US$14.1 billion in China alone

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BIGO Technologies co-founder and president Jason Hu speaking at an event in Singapore. Photo: Handout
Tracy Qu

When he was 19, working at a factory in China, Jason Hu never thought he would end up leading a start-up worth billions of US dollars.

With only a junior college degree that he had obtained while in technical secondary school, Hu took the national graduate entrance exams and got into a postgraduate computer science programme in Peking University. After stints at Microsoft and Alibaba Group Holding, Hu joined Guangzhou-based, US-listed live broadcaster YY – now known as JOYY – in 2011. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

He caught the attention of JOYY co-founder and chairman David Li Xueling who handpicked him to be part of the founding team of new Singapore-based venture, BIGO Technology, in 2014. Now in his forties, Hu holds the title of co-founder and president.

BIGO Technology, which was started as a separate entity from YY but was acquired by the latter for US$1.45 billion last year, now has about 4,000 employees.

Jason Hu at the age of 19, when he was working on the production line in a factory. Photo: Handout
Jason Hu at the age of 19, when he was working on the production line in a factory. Photo: Handout

As of the last quarter of 2019, it had 350 million monthly active users for its apps which include live-streaming app BIGO Live, social media and messaging app Imo and short video app Likee, which is fast gaining popularity in Southeast Asia, India, and Russia.

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