(Yicai Global) Nov. 18 -- The user base of Lark, a workplace collaboration and communication platform under Chinese internet giant ByteDance, has expanded very well over the past year, the firm’s chief executive officer said.

The number of Lark’s industrial clients is increasing, Xie Xin said yesterday, adding that indicators such as daily active users are not suitable measures for such to-business products. The user base has expanded from the internet, technology, and entertainment sectors to new energy vehicles, new consumption, real estate, culture, media, and advanced manufacturing, he noted.

Lark is a workspace collaborative and management platform developed by Beijing-based ByteDance, which also own TikTok, in 2016. It supports multiple operating systems and web terminals. On Feb. 24, Lark announced that it would be free and open to all Chinese businesses and organizations, regardless of the scale and license length.

The global collaborative workspace market has developed rapidly due to the pandemic. It is expected to grow 10 percent to USD48.1 billion in 2024 from USD31 billion in 2019, according to iResearch. The Chinese market reached CNY44 billion (USD6.9 billion) last year, up 43.5 percent from 2019, and it is expected to exceed CNY50 billion this year, with a slightly higher growth rate than before Covid.

Alibaba Group Holding’s workplace messaging app DingTalk was the largest in China last month with 153 million monthly active users, followed by Tencent Holdings’ WeCom and WeChat Meeting with 70 million and 45 million, respectively, according to analytics platform Qianfan. Lark had 629,000 MAU.

Lark also released a new version 5.0 yesterday, which includes a comprehensive upgrade of the brand logo and visual experience. The previous version was released in May.

ByteDance did not push Lark in terms of revenue since it became an independent business unit, but instead offered support and patience, Xie told Yicai Global.

Liang Rubo, who took over as ByteDance’s CEO, announced on Nov. 2 a division of the group into six business units: TikTok, Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, Dali Education, Volcengine, Nuverse, and Feishu, which is Lark’s Chinese version.

Editor: Futura Costaglione