Seoul: Short video platform TikTok has launched an app for LG’s 2020 and 2021 smart TVs, the TV manufacturer has announced. The app arrived on these recent webOS 5.0 and webOS 6.0 models with a firmware update that started rolling out October 7, but will also be coming to older 2019 TVs “in the coming months”.
The app is launching in the UK, France and Germany, citing a TikTok representative The Verge reported Friday. That’s notable since TikTok’s smart TV apps for Samsung TVs, Android TV and Fire TV have all focused on those same European countries so far.
Meanwhile in the US, TikTok released a more limited “More on TikTok” app on Fire TV devices last year.
Considering how optimized TikTok is for portrait-orientated mobile viewing, it’s not going to look great on living room televisions, the report said.
But TikTok is understood to be trying to reach a broader audience with its smart TV apps, as well as to tap into the higher advertising rates associated with TV viewing, Protocol previously reported.
Last year, the Indian government said it was banning 59 apps developed by Chinese firms, including ByteDance’s TikTok over concerns that these apps were engaging in activities that threatened national security.
IANS