Asian Tech Press (Oct 17) -- TikTok owner ByteDance has cut the project team of its metaverse-like social app Party Island.

Chinese Internet company ByteDance Ltd. has axed the project team of social app Party Island", and told the members to return to their original team, in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, insiders revealed Monday.

Party Island, launched in mid-July this year, is a real-time online activity community, in which players can chat and interact with each other through virtual images. The industry believed that the launch of the metaverse-like social app was a signal for TikTok's Chinese operator to enter the metauniverse field.

The sources said that due to problems related to security procedures, ByteDance took down Party Island shortly after a beta testing, and cut the project as it is now uncertain of the re-launch date.