You can now shop with one of China’s hottest news services

Shopping app Zhidian also delivers the news while you browse

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why not read some stories while you consider whether to buy that 1 yuan towel? (Picture: Zhidian)

Published: 7:00pm, 17 Oct 2018Updated: 8:42am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Imagine Flipboard rolling out an online shopping platform.

That’s happening in China, where popular news aggregator Toutiao recently launched a shopping app called Zhidian, which roughly translates as “value point”.

Breaking down China's most popular news app, Toutiao

Zhidian markets itself as a destination for budget shoppers, sourcing products directly from factories to lower the prices. For now, it appears to carry a more limited range of products than bigger rivals like Pinduoduo. Interestingly, it sells men’s clothing but not women’s.

But being a product from Toutiao, it's applied what it does best by including several news feeds -- covering topics like health and food, similar to those on Toutiao.

Read some stories while you consider whether to buy that discounted towel. (Picture: Zhidian)

It's not the first time Toutiao has ventured into e-commerce. The company has partnerships with JD.com and Alibaba, allowing users to shop on their retail platforms without leaving the Toutiao app.

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