China’s Kuaishou slumps to five-week low following livestreaming cyberattack

A surprising drop in Kuaishou Technology (1024.HK) shares occurred after the Chinese short-video platform suffered a massive cybersecurity breach that disrupted its livestreaming on Monday night.

According to Reuters, the shares dropped as much as 6% on Tuesday to HK$62.70 ($8.06), their lowest since November 21, after the platform was hit by a major cyberattack on Monday night.

Meanwhile, Douyin’s closest rival confirmed on Tuesday that it experienced a security breach at approximately 10 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Monday.

In this connection, the company said that the livestreaming function of its app has been progressively restored, while other services remain affected.

The company has notified the police and relevant authorities of the severe incident.

According to Chinese media reports, many users were exposed to malicious and indecent material on Monday night-an event that some have described as “unprecedented” in the platform’s history.

The recent severe cyberattack marks a significant operational failure, exposing critical vulnerabilities in real-time content moderation.

Additionally, the incident has intensified fears as the company's ability to recover its stock value will likely depend on whether it can prove its AI defenses are capable of preventing sophisticated security breaches.