(Reuters) – A Chinese copyright association has asked Kuaishou Technology to delete 10,000 videos it said infringes intellectual property rules, days before the online short-video firm is set to list its shares in Hong Kong this week.
The China Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA), a non-profit government-backed organization, said in a statement it found more than 155 million videos on Kuaishou that uses music for which it has copyright oversight, without its permission.
The association said in the statement posted on its website on Monday it has provided the links to the first batch of 10,000 videos to Kuaishou and asked the company to delete them.
Kuaishou did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kuaishou, whose name means “fast hand” in Chinese, operates the eponymous app in China and its overseas versions Kwai and Zynn.
The Tencent Holdings-backed app is popular among grassroots users in rural China. The platform boasts 263 million daily active users and counts Taiwanese singer Jay Chou as an endorser.
Kuaishou raised $5.4 billion from its IPO last week, the top of the range, with offers from retail investors reaching a mammoth $162 billion, sources told Reuters. Kuaishou’s shares start trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.
ByteDance’s Douyin, a Chinese version of the company’s hit video app TikTok, competes with Kuaishou in China.
CAVCA said in the statement it will continue to monitor any violations from short video platforms.
(Reporting by Pei Li and Brenda Goh; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
