Chinese media regulators are studying measures to curb addiction among youths to short videos, the format popularised by tech giants from ByteDance Ltd to Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The National Radio and Television Administration held a meeting Feb 22 to consider ways to tighten oversight of the short video industry. The powerful agency called for the sector’s “healthy development” and improvements in content quality, without elaborating or naming companies. The key was to prevent minors from spending too much time on them, it said in a brief statement.

It’s unclear whether regulators will eventually move ahead with concrete measures, but Beijing has in past years prioritised measures to wean China’s youth off excessive gaming and other pursuits it considers harmful or undesirable. In 2021, the government abruptly limited gaming time to just three hours a week for children, a landmark regulation that hammered the bottom lines of companies including Tencent and NetEase Inc.

Short videos - the bite-sized segments of a few seconds that characterise services such as TikTok and its Chinese cousin Douyin - have in recent years exploded in popularity globally, particularly among teens. Their proliferation made ByteDance the world’s most valuable startup, spurred incumbent giants such as Meta Platforms Inc and Tencent to adopt the format, and minted an entire economy of influencers, advertisers and merchants.

“The Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television’s concerns about minors becoming addicted to short videos could herald new regulations that restrict viewing time, potentially impacting earnings at the likes of Kuaishou and, to a lesser extent, Bilibili and Tencent. Unlisted ByteDance, the owner of Douyin and TikTok, could also suffer from the move,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Robert Lea and Tiffany Tam.

Beijing has since 2020 clamped down on other industries that gained widespread followings and amassed valuable personal data, including ecommerce, ride-hailing and online education. The government has consistently tried to curb the rising power of China’s Internet titans, though in recent months Xi Jinping’s administration sent strong signals they were loosening the reins, in part because of the over-riding objective of reviving the world’s No. 2 economy.

 - Bloomberg