BEIJING, December 17 (TMTPOST) — TikTok’s parent company ByteDance launched its small and micro loan product, “Fangxinjie, Businessmen Only”, on Friday.

Toutiao’s small and micro loan product targets small and micro businesses. Its competitive advantages reportedly lie in the lower interest rates and quotas.

The launch of Toutiao’s small and micro loan product fills Toutiao’s blank in loaning. Now Toutiao will work on both loans for consumers and businesses through its online small loan licenses.

Fangxinjie, Businessmen Only has a max loan quota of 300,000 yuan for users with an interest rate between 7.2% and 18%, which is much lower than the 10.8%-24% of Fangxinjie. Toutiao’s small and micro loan product has a much lower interest rate than its counterparts on other platforms.

Toutiao has secured its license for online small loans before the launch of Fangxinjie, Businessmen Only.

With the license, Toutiao’s credit products such as Fangxinjie will gradually transform from loan assistance to independent operation on its own. This means the loans will be then be provided by Zhongrong Small Loans or other institutions wholly owned by Toutiao.

Founded in 2012, Toutiao is a Chinese news and information content platform, a core product of ByteDance. By analyzing the features of content, users and users’ interaction with content, the company's algorithm models generate a tailored content feed for each user. Toutiao is one of China’s largest and most popular content aggregators, with 212.6 million monthly active users, according to market research firm iimedia.

Toutiao’s Fangxinjie, which means “safe borrowing” in Chinese, was launched in July 2018. The credit service promised to broker low-interest loans of up to 200,000 yuan ($29,000) from financial institutions to clients over 20 years old, excluding students.

Nonfinancial content outlets started to cooperate with online lenders to develop loan services after financial regulators urged local governments to strengthen the supervision of payday loans in China and suspend the approval of new online lending companies in 2018. Content outlets’ increasing interest in loaning business has sparked controversies because of qualification matters and their ability to reach a massive audience of potential consumers.