Douyin's cooperation with Sohu will look to bring back the classics of Chinese TV shows.
Douyin, Chinese version of TikTok, announced today that it reached an agreement with Sohu. The agreement will grant licenses related to the derivative work of all self-made movies and television works by Sohu, including the hit dramas "Medical Examiner Dr. Qin," "Fleet of Time" and "Mysterious Love." The arrangement includes Douyin, Xigua Video and Toutiao.
Users on Douyin are now free to re-create any derivative work of Sohu. The collaboration between the two platforms will help to promote any future creative works. With the immense popularity of short videos, Douyin and Sohu's arrangement will promote Sohu's classic works to more audience by leveraging Douyin's user base. It has become a normal practice for shows and movies to solicit submission on major short video platforms such as Douyin.
Douyin, however, has been subject to copyright lawsuits in the past. Last year, Tencent sued Douyin and urged it to remove its derivative works of "Crime Crackdown". Tencent once again sued Douyin this year for its infringement on the rights of Tencent's Honor of Kings, famous mobile game in China. The cooperation between Douyin and Sohu could help Douyin to obtain more permission to derivative works in the future.