Kuaishou is a Chinese short-video and live-streaming app run by Kuaishou Technology, founded in 2011 as a GIF-making tool. Foreign companies use it to reach consumers beyond China’s largest cities, through ads, creator partnerships and live-stream sales that rely on the trust between streamers and their followers.
What Kuaishou does
Kuaishou started as a tool to make GIFs, then turned into a community where people share short videos of their daily lives. Its motto is about recording and sharing life, and its content stays closer to everyday life than to polished entertainment.
Today the app covers:
- Short videos: users shoot, edit and publish videos, and a feed recommends them to other users.
- Live streaming: talent shows, gaming and live sales, where viewers send virtual gifts or buy products.
- E-commerce: products bought directly in videos, live streams and stores, often on the recommendation of a streamer the buyer already follows.
- Social features: following, private messages and comments.
- Local services: group-buying deals for restaurants, travel and in-store shopping.
Who uses Kuaishou
Kuaishou reaches users in every tier of Chinese cities, with a particularly strong base in third- and fourth-tier cities and rural areas. Its audience is young at its core but also includes middle-aged and older users, and it values down-to-earth, personality-driven content.
The app passed 600 million monthly active users in 2024. Kuaishou Technology is listed in Hong Kong and publishes its user and revenue figures every quarter on its investor relations site: use the latest report rather than older figures quoted elsewhere.
How Kuaishou makes money
Kuaishou reports three lines of business:
- Online marketing services: advertising, sold under the Magnetic Engine (磁力引擎) brand, and paid promotion of creators’ content. Advertising has become its largest source of revenue.
- Live streaming: viewers buy virtual gifts for streamers, and the platform keeps a share.
- E-commerce and other services: commissions and technical service fees on sales made in videos, live streams and stores. Clothing, food, home goods and electronics are among the main categories.
What a foreign company can do on Kuaishou
- Advertise through Magnetic Engine: in-feed ads, brand ads and search ads, targeted with Kuaishou’s data on its users’ interests and behavior.
- Partner with creators. Live sales on Kuaishou rest on what the platform calls the trust economy: followers buy from streamers they know. Our guide to KOL marketing and live streaming in China explains how brands pick and pay creators.
- Sell in a Kuaishou store. Opening a store or a verified enterprise account generally requires Chinese business documents, so foreign brands usually work through their Chinese entity or a local partner.
Live sales bring orders in bursts, and the catalog, stock and payment systems behind them have to keep up. An e-commerce agency in China connects Kuaishou with your other sales channels.
Kuaishou, Douyin and Kwai: what is the difference?
Douyin, from ByteDance, is Kuaishou’s main rival: both combine short video, live streaming and e-commerce. Douyin is more algorithm- and trend-driven, with polished content and national reach. Kuaishou is more community-driven and stronger outside the largest cities, where long-standing relationships between streamers and followers drive sales. Kwai, Kuaishou’s international app, runs separately outside China. Our guide to video marketing in China compares the Chinese video platforms side by side.
How QPSoftware can help
QPSoftware is a digital agency in Shanghai, working with foreign brands since 2009. Kuaishou can open markets beyond China’s first-tier cities; we build the commerce behind it, from the store and the product catalog to payments and integrations. Discuss your project with our e-commerce team in Shanghai.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a foreign company sell on Kuaishou?
Yes, but usually not directly from abroad. Opening a Kuaishou store or a verified enterprise account generally requires Chinese business documents, such as a business license. Foreign brands therefore sell through their Chinese entity, through a local distributor, or by partnering with creators who sell in their live streams. Check the current merchant requirements with Kuaishou before you plan a launch, as they change over time.
Is Kuaishou available in English?
The Kuaishou app is in Chinese and designed for users in mainland China. Kuaishou Technology runs a separate international app, Kwai, in markets outside China, with its own content and audience. A foreign brand that wants to reach Chinese consumers on Kuaishou needs Chinese-language videos, live streams and customer service, usually produced with a local team or partner.
How does Kuaishou differ from Douyin?
Both are short-video and live-commerce apps. Douyin, from ByteDance, relies on its recommendation algorithm and trend-led, polished content, with reach across all city tiers. Kuaishou built its audience in smaller cities and rural areas, with everyday content and sales based on the trust between streamers and their followers. Brands targeting lower-tier markets often add Kuaishou to Douyin.