Everything You Need To Know About Bytedance (Detailed Overview)
So, what is ByteDance?
ByteDance Ltd. is an internet technology company founded by Zhang Yiming, and it is well-known for developing video sharing platform TikTok. The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands. The company started in 2012 and was doing great work. But when it launched TikTok, the ByteDance entered the Unicorn family. Let’s know about the company in detail.
Company Overview
Here is the basic information about ByteDance.
Company Profile
| Company Name | ByteDance Co., Ltd. |
| Founded | 13 March 2012 |
| Founders | Zhang Yiming Liang Rubo |
| Industry | Internet |
| Type | Private |
| Headquarters | Haidian District, Beijing, China Cayman Island (Legal Domicile) |
| Key People | CEO- Liang Rubo Global GC- Erich Anderson CEO of ByteDance China- Kelly Zhang Chairman of ByteDance China- Lidong Zhang |
| Area Served | Worldwide |
| Products | TikTok Toutiao BuzzVideo Douyin Vigo Video Resso Helo CapCut PICO Baike.com Jianying |
| Employee Number | ~130,000 |
| Revenue | $58 Billion (2021) |
| Website | www.bytedance.com |
Company History
Zhang Yiming was an entrepreneur and software engineer. In 2009, Zhang, along with his friend Liang Rubo developed a real estate search engine named 99fang.com. After three years of working together, both of them, along with other employees, rented an apartment and started working to develop an app. Their aim was to create an app that could classify news according to preference and would be using big data algorithms. The name of that app was Toutiao, and later, they founded ByteDance.
First App Launch
They started the company in 2012. And soon after, they launched Neihan Duanzi, their first app. People can share memes, jokes, and humorous videos through the application. The app was shut down in 2018 by the Chinese Government, and it had more than 200 million users.
Company Expansion
In 2016, the platform launched its research arm, which was called ByteDance AI Lab. The head of the unit was Wei-Ying Ma, and before this, he was Microsoft Research Asia’s assistant managing director. In 2016 and 2017, the company was successful in releasing different products. At that time, ByteDance acquired Flipagram, and this led to the company forming TikTok.
Corporate Affairs
Here are ByteDance’s corporate affairs that will help you to understand the company.
Funding And Ownership
The company is backed by SoftBank Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, and Hillhouse Capital Group. What’s more, In 2021, the value of the company was around $250 Billion. There was a company that owned the China Media Group and Cyberspace Administration of China. This company bought ByteDance’s 1% stake and then placed Wu Shugang on the board of directors. Later that year, Reuters and The Economist elaborated on the incident as a golden share investment there is a Chinese government’s stake in ByteDance.
Management
Since the start of the company in 2021, Zhang Yiming has been the CEO and chairman of ByteDance. But, in 2021, Liang Rubo took over as the CEO. In 2020, Kevin Mayer was appointed for the CEO position of TikTok and the COO of ByteDance. Earlier, he used to work at Disney. Chew Shouzi took over as CEO of TikTok in 2021. He was the former CFO of Xiaomi.
Lobbying
In the United States, Michael Beckerman led the lobby efforts. There is huge lobbying by ByteDance in the United States through the United States Congress, Department of Commerce, White House, Department of Defense, and Department of State. The company hired LGL Advisors, K&L Gates, and other firms like American Innovation and Choice Online Act, the United States Innovation and Competition Act, and National Defense Authorization Act.
Partnerships
The company has a partnership with the Ministry of Public Security of China. The main reason behind this partnership is the public relations efforts. Additionally, the company formed ventures with Beijing municipal CCP committee, Beijing Time, and Shanghai Dongfang.
Products
The company is widely known for developing TikTok. But there are other apps that are also quite popular. The platform has various applications and more than two billion users every month. Here are the products that you may find interesting other than TikTok.
- CapCut (2020)
- Douyin (2016)
- Lark (2019)
- Toutiao (2012)
- Nurse (2013)
- Xigua Video (2016)
- TopBuzz (2015)
- Resso
- Party Island (2022)
- Nathan Duanzi (2018)
- Moonton (2021)
- Gogokid (2018)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Here are some questions and answers that you might find interesting.
Ans. ByteDance’s headquarter is in Beijing, China. When it comes to business, the company claims that ByteDance Ltd.’s business is completely separate from China’s business. ByteDance owns TikTok wholly. TikTok is a video app that recently created a boom in the market, and it has more than 1 billion active users monthly. But, in ByteDance’s critics’ eyes, they don’t see any difference.
Ans. Unlike other businesses, ByteDance uses the SSP platform, which makes this company unique. The units or product teams of the company don’t control the operating resources. Instead, common business, operating functions, and technology are organized and centralized into corresponding teams.
Ans. Different companies have different individual values that they try to encourage to focus on, and this is what makes the people’s unique strengths stronger.
• The company always says to focus on the say, “Always Day 1.”
• Their next value is to be inclusive, and champion diversified.
• it is important things is to be clear and candid-minded.
• The company also focuses on being pragmatic and trying to seek the truth.
• Courage is needed to reach the top, so aim for the highest.
• Whether you are self-centered or not, you need to be a good team player.
So think about growing together.
Final Words
So this is it. I hope now you have the answer to who owns ByteDance. The company is an example that two people full of dreams can establish a unicorn. Also, one of the most important things about ByteDance is that the company hasn’t completed ten years, and yet it has already entered the unicorn family.
I hope you will find this article interesting. If so, then please share and give your feedback.
Thank You.
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Mashum Mollah is the feature writer of Search Engine Magazine and an SEO Analyst at Real Wealth Business. Over the last 3 years, He has successfully developed and implemented online marketing, SEO, and conversion campaigns for 50+ businesses of all sizes. He is the co-founder of Social Media Magazine.
