ByteDance(字节跳动)

Fast facts
- Year Founded
- 2012
- HQ Location
- Beijing, China
- Publicly Traded?
- No
Planned an IPO for this year but canceled its plans after meetings with government officialsSource: WSJwww.wsj.com/articles/bytedance-shelvedipo-intentions-after-chinese-regulators-warned-about-data-security-11626078000
- Overseas Operations
- Yes
Behind China’s most successful global app, TikTok, which has over 1 billion monthly users, ByteDance is an international force, holding offices in 126 cities and carrying products available in over 150 markets. The company has hired thousands of employees across the US, Europe, and other markets in the past 2 years. After first purchasing Musical.ly — a social video app that would soon evolve into TikTok — for $900 million in 2017, ByteDance’s rise has been meteoric and TikTok has become ubiquitous across the globe.Source: Harvard Business Reviewhbr.org/2019/09/the-strategy-behind-tiktoks-global-rise
- US Sanctions
- No
- Military Affiliation in China
- No
Revenue
This figure is for full year 2020. More recent reports indicate the company is on track for significant revenue growth in 2021Source: WSJwww.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-owner-bytedances-annual-revenue-jumps-to-34-3-billion-11623903622
Valuation
Anonymous, gray-market, online trades have valued the company at up to $400 billion.Source: South China Morning Postwww.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3152326/tiktok-owner-bytedances-valuation-reaches-us400-billion-anonymous
Employees
Source: Financial Timeswww.ft.com/content/5c10ed57-16b6-43f9-882d-d2cb9837fdc7
ByteDance (字节跳动) is an internet technology company known for its video-sharing platforms TikTok and Douyin, and Toutiao (“Headlines”), a popular news recommendation app. It was founded by Zhang Yiming, Liang Rubo, and others in 2012. By the end of 2020, ByteDance had 1.9 billion monthly active users across all of its platforms.
Backed by powerful private equity firms like KKR, Hillhouse, and Sequioa Capital, the Chinese government recently purchased a 1% stake and board seat in ByteDance through WangTouZhongWen Technology.
-
- Name
- Ownership
-
- Zhāng Yīmíng
Source: Qichachawww.qcc.com/firm/ce211dbdab20dce66a9472847133d1be.html
- 98.8140%
- Zhāng Yīmíng
-
- Zhāng Lìdōng
Source: Qichachawww.qcc.com/firm/ce211dbdab20dce66a9472847133d1be.html
- 1.1860%
- Zhāng Lìdōng
- Liang Ru Bo, (梁汝波), Chief Executive Officer (Global) & Chairman (Global) Zhang Li Dong (张利东), Chairman (China) & Head of Commercialization Business Zhang Nan (张楠), Chief Executive Officer (China) Chen Lin (陈林), Chief Commercial Officer Yang Zhen Yuan (杨震原), Vice President Chew Shou Zi (周受资), Chief Executive Officer (Tiktok) Xie Xin, (谢欣), Head of Feishu Business Yan Shou (严授), Head of Gaming Hua Wei (华巍), Head of HR and Management Office
Source: Wechatmp.weixin.qq.com/s/TkpV2ux3ibqj372c39cApg
Behind China’s most successful global app, TikTok, which has over 1 billion monthly users, ByteDance is an international force, holding offices in 126 cities and carrying products available in over 150 markets. The company has hired thousands of employees across the US, Europe, and other markets in the past 2 years. After first purchasing Musical.ly — a social video app that would soon evolve into TikTok — for $900 million in 2017, ByteDance’s rise has been meteoric and TikTok has become ubiquitous across the globe.
Source: Harvard Business Reviewhbr.org/2019/09/the-strategy-behind-tiktoks-global-rise
ByteDance Sanctions
While at this time it appears that this company is not the subject of any U.S. or other global sanctions, it is important to note that Chinese companies tend to have more opaque organizational structures than their Western peers. Chinese companies' affiliated brands, operating units, and overseas subsidiaries are not always obvious or even identifiable. Given this, a Chinese company may not be the subject of sanctions, but one of its subsidiaries may be, thus making it difficult to accurately ascertain a company's full sanctions status.
ByteDance Reputational Disclosures
- March 2021 – Chinese regulators met with ByteDance to discuss deepfakes and the security implications of forged media representations.
- April 2021 – China’s financial watchdogs summoned ByteDance to regulatory interviews as part of the government’s antitrust probe.
- July 2021 – Due to the wishes of Chinese regulators, ByteDance has been blocking new user and content creator registrations for its Chinese news aggregator Toutiao. Toutiao is ByteDance’s second-largest ad revenue source in China following Douyin, and these regulations come on the heels of China’s probe into Didi following its IPO.
- July 2021 – ByteDance placed its ambitions to list offshore on hold following a warning from government officials about cybersecurity risks.