ByteDance Acquires Oladance for Wearable Device Push

TapTechNews May 21st, according to a report by Bloomberg, ByteDance has acquired Chinese headphone manufacturer Oladance for approximately $50 million (TapTechNews note: currently about 362 million Chinese yuan) in its latest move to develop wearable devices.

An unnamed source familiar with the matter said ByteDance has finalized the deal and sent employees to work with the five-year-old Shenzhen-based startup Oladance. The report also said that the acquisition brought in a team of experienced former Bose engineers.

ByteDance is exploring new hardware categories and seeking to expand its social ecosystem beyond mobile phones. One of the sources said ByteDance management sees the potential to turn wearable devices into a generative AI service platform, and its Doubao chatbot has recently become the most downloaded ChatGPT-like app in China.

ByteDance and Oladance did not respond to inquiries about the transaction.

TapTechNews learned from Oladance's official website that the company has launched a number of open-ear headphone products and claims to have users in more than 30 countries around the world, with user footprints in China, the United States, Spain, Thailand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, India, Japan, France, Germany, Switzerland, etc.