At just 10 years old, ByteDance, the most valuable startup in the world, has shattered records for growth. In 2021, with 1.9 billion monthly active users in 150 countries, and an employee base of over 110,000, the company recorded an astonishing $58 billion in revenues. Most users know the company only by its hit short-video app TikTok, which has been downloaded over 3 billion times globally, a feat only exceeded by Meta and its family of apps. Respectively, Toutiao and Douyin account for 20% and 60% of the company’s total advertising revenues. ByteDance was founded in 2012 by a team led by Yiming Zhang and Rubo Liang, who saw opportunities in the then-nascent mobile internet market, and aspired to build platforms that could enrich people’s lives.

TikTok’s popularity also increased considerably during the COVID-19 pandemic, as millions of housebound social media users turned to their phones for entertainment. In 2020 ByteDance released CapCut, a video-editing software with more than 200 million monthly active users. In July 2018, ByteDance said Douyin and TikTok had 500 million monthly average users (MAUs). That number could now be higher because the company said in January that Douyin alone had 500 million MAUs in China. ByteDance products have faced government-led investigations and large-scale bans in other countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey.

It has also said that Douyin employees do not have access to TikTok’s US user data. TikTok’s CEO has told Congress that the firm has never been asked by the Chinese government for US user data nor has it provided it. These concerns have been echoed by US intelligence and law enforcement agencies — including by the FBI director this week — as well as regulators elsewhere.

1. From its birth in a Beijing apartment 12 years ago, ByteDance grew into one of the world’s biggest tech firms — best known in most countries as the creator of TikTok.
2. Driven by the success of TikTok and their other apps, ByteDance’s yearly revenue ballooned to $80 billion in 2022.
3. ByteDance products have faced government-led investigations and large-scale bans in other countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey.
4. Thanks to the explosive growth of these apps, ByteDance has branched out into e-commerce and travel bookings, and also released a video editing app.

But the app’s success does follow a familiar pattern for Bytedance, which has demonstrated a startling ability to launch, grow, and sustain services that have users hooked. Thanks to the explosive growth of these apps, ByteDance has branched out into e-commerce and travel bookings, and also released a video editing app. Thanks to the explosive growth of these apps, ByteDance has branched out into e-commerce and travel bookings and also released a video editing app. Driven by the success of TikTok and their other apps, ByteDance’s yearly revenue ballooned to $80 billion in 2022.

TikTok owner ByteDance is a $75 billion Chinese tech giant — here’s what you need to know about it

During the past decade, ByteDance has proven itself time and again to be a spectacularly innovative and successful company. This has been true not only for TikTok but many of its other apps, which have vast numbers of users. In this article, the authors explain the many ways in which ByteDance has used its SSP to fuel development and growth. Bytedance believes that its algorithmic approach to content could work around the world, and it has developed Toutiao-like apps for other markets.

Toutiao: personalized content aggregation and distribution

Tencent has had its clashes with the government, too, most recently being hit by restrictions on video game releases and play time. But if Bytedance can make the most of what appears to be a greater agility in operating overseas, that could be a key advantage for the younger company. TikTok recently attained the traditional social network rite of passage of having Facebook brazenly rip it off.

ByteDance’s founders have a 20 percent stake, and the remainder is held by employees, according to TikTok. From its birth in a Beijing apartment 12 years ago, ByteDance grew into one of the world’s biggest tech firms — best known in most countries as the creator of TikTok. A Chinese state-owned entity owns 1 per cent of Douyin, according to the ByteDance website. TikTok has said this octafx review is a requirement under Chinese law and does not impact ByteDance’s international operations. A privately held firm, ByteDance does not release revenue and profit figures, but media estimates of its earnings put it on par with some of the biggest firms in the world. ByteDance is part of a growing number of Chinese companies setting its sights on overseas markets including the U.S.

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The popularity of Douyin in China inspired the team to develop TikTok for international audiences. TikTok is an app platform that allows users to post short-form videos and share content from their cell phones. TikTok uses advanced algorithmic methods to predict which videos users will enjoy and thus create a personalized assortment of videos for them to peruse on their “For You” page (FYP). The first product the group produced was the app Neihan Duanzi (“profound gags”), which allowed users to share jokes and memes. This was followed by the news aggregator app Toutiao, which used machine and deep learning algorithms to deliver a personalized news feed to users.

Toutiao became an early flagship of ByteDance and continues to have more than 300 million monthly active users. The company also developed the Indian social media app Hello, as well as the popular Indonesian news aggregator Baca Berita (BaBe). ByteDance also launched Toutiao, a news aggregation app which uses algorithms to suggest articles and videos to users, in 2012. It’s one of the largest news aggregation apps in China and is installed on over 250 million monthly unique devices, according to data from Chinese market research firm, iResearch.

Legislation was also introduced that could lead to a national ban of the platform altogether. Despite the company’s grandiose success, ByteDance has faced international scrutiny as a result of accusations that the company imposes censorship in favour of the Chinese government. For example, users have accused the company of deleting articles ifc markets on BaBe that were critical of the Chinese government. In 2019 TikTok user Feroza Aziz’s account was suspended after she posted a video criticizing the Chinese government’s mass detention of Uyghur Muslims. A ByteDance spokesman initially claimed that Aziz was suspended because of a previous offense that violated TikTok’s policies.

You could be forgiven for not having heard the name Bytedance before the recent news. The founder, 35-year-old Zhang Yiming, rarely gives interviews, and the company’s Western-facing media presence is close to nonexistent. Bytedance is the first Chinese internet company with a significant, genuinely engaged following around the world, which means it’s worthy of serious attention. TikTok is inescapable right now, and it’s not just teens paying attention — it’s rocked the business world as well. Bytedance, the owner of the wildly popular short-form video app, is now valued at more than $75 billion following a new round of investment. This means Uber has unexpectedly lost its long-held title of the world’s most valuable tech startup to a low-profile challenger from China.

And Bytedance’s news services inevitably risk running into the same algorithmic pitfalls that have plagued Facebook for years; the company’s apps have been accused of spreading fake news in countries such as India and beyond. The app enjoyed early success with young Internet users, and its coinsmart review user base grew substantially in 2017, when ByteDance acquired the popular video-sharing app Musical.ly, which it merged with TikTok in 2018. Much of TikTok’s popularity came from viral videos that were shared by Internet influencers and social media stars who had millions of followers.