who-owns-tiktok

Who Owns TikTok?

Business / By / August 6, 2023

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company owning several content platforms worldwide (Douyin, Toutiao, Xigua Video, Helo, Lark, Babe). Bytedance passed the $300 billion private market valuation by 2022, making around $58 billion in revenue in 2022, over $4 billion from TikTok.

ByteDance corporate structure

Based on the several products the company has, its holding company is a Cayman corporation, keeping control of other subsidiaries, from TikTok Ltd., which is the Cayman holding, owning TikTok LLC (in the US), TikTok KK, in Japan, TikTok Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, and TikTok Information Technologies UK Ltd. in the UK.

bytedance-leadership
Source: ByteDance

The leadership team comprises Yiming Zhang, founder, and CEO, followed by the other board of directors.

  • Zhang Yiming is a Chinese entrepreneur with an impressive list of accomplishments. He founded ByteDance in 2012 and followed it up with the video platform TikTok (Douyin) and the news and information content site Toutiao.
  • When Expedia announced it would acquire the travel website Kuxun in 2009, Zhang, a former employee there, took charge of its real estate search business and started 99fang.com.
  • Zhang founded ByteDance in 2012 based on a vision to use AI to generate relevant content and recommendations for Chinese consumers. He stepped down as CEO in May 2021 to focus on bigger-picture tasks.

The turning point came in 2018 when TikTok merged with musical.ly.

TikTok-merge-musical.ly
Source: ByteDance

ByteDance started its international growth in the Western world when in August 2018, it merged Music.ly with TikTok, and from there, the International expansions accelerated.

bytedance-investors
Source: ByteDance

Within ByteDance, other investors are private equity and venture capital firms like Sequoia, KKR, and SoftBank.

TikTok’s business model is quite interesting as it goes beyond traditional social media.

tiktok-business-model
TikTok makes money through advertising. It is estimated that ByteDance, its owner, made $51 billion in 2021 in revenues. TikTok instead generated $11 billion in advertising in 2022, 3.3 billion downloads, and 1.2 billion monthly active users in 2021. TikTok, therefore, is a multi-billion company worth anywhere between $100 and-150 billion and among the most valuable social media platforms on earth.

A Timeline of ByteDance’s Rise

  • March 2012: ByteDance is founded in a four-bedroom apartment.
  • August 2012: ByteDance launches one of its most successful first products: Toutiao.
  • September 2016: ByteDance launches Douyin in China as a successful short-form video app, which is the precursor of TikTok.
  • December 2016: ByteDance acquires controlling stake in Indonesian news app BABE.
  • May 2017: ByteDance launches TikTok outside China.
  • November 2017: ByteDance acquires short-video platform musical.ly, which would become a key ingredient in TikTok’s success outside China.
  • June 2018: ByteDance launches Helo in India as a social media platform.
  • August 2018: ByteDance finalizes merger between musical.ly and TikTok
  • March 2019: ByteDance launches Lark in Japan and Singapore as its first enterprise product.

Other products part of ByteDance

  • Douyin is China’s leading destination for short-form mobile videos. (TikTok in China).
  • Toutiao is one of the most popular content discovery platforms in China.
  • TikTok leading destination for short-form mobile video.
  • Xigua Video is one of China’s most popular video applications that enable users to discover, enjoy and share a wide range of video stories, both short-form and long-form.
  • Helo India’s leading social media platforms.
  • Lark collaboration tools in a single interconnected platform, including chat, calendar, content creation, cloud storage, and app management.
  • Babe Indonesia’s leading news and content app.

Key Highlights:

  • TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company that also owns several other content platforms worldwide, such as Douyin, Toutiao, Xigua Video, Helo, Lark, and Babe.
  • By 2022, ByteDance had passed a private market valuation of $300 billion, with approximately $58 billion in revenue in the same year, and over $4 billion of that coming from TikTok.
  • The corporate structure of ByteDance involves a Cayman corporation as the holding company, with control over subsidiaries like TikTok Ltd., TikTok LLC (US), TikTok KK (Japan), TikTok Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), and TikTok Information Technologies UK Ltd. (UK).
  • The leadership team of ByteDance is led by founder and former CEO Yiming Zhang, who founded ByteDance in 2012 with a vision to use AI for content generation and recommendations. Zhang stepped down as CEO in May 2021 to focus on bigger-picture tasks.
  • TikTok’s business model revolves around advertising, and it generates significant revenue from this source. In 2022, TikTok earned $11 billion in advertising revenue and had 3.3 billion downloads and 1.2 billion monthly active users.
  • ByteDance’s rise has been marked by the launch of various successful products and strategic acquisitions, including Toutiao in 2012, Douyin in 2016 (the precursor of TikTok), musical.ly in 2017, and Helo in 2018.
  • Besides TikTok, ByteDance’s other products include Douyin, Toutiao, Xigua Video, Helo, Lark, and Babe, each catering to different markets and purposes.

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Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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