Tiktok owner Bytedance doubles revenue as lockdown fuels viral videos
The Chinese owner of Tiktok saw its revenue more than double last year as the pandemic drove up interest in the wildly-popular viral video app.
In a memo to employees Bytedance said its revenue grew 111 per cent to $34.3bn (£25bn) in 2020, while gross profit rose 93 per cent to $19bn.
Bytedance had roughly 1.9bn monthly active users across all its platforms at the end of the year, according to the memo, which was seen by the Wall Street Journal.
In addition to Tiktok, the group owns Chinese equivalent Douyin and news aggregation app Jinri Toutiao.
The Beijing-based company racked up an operating loss of $2.1bn last year, reportedly due to higher expenses from share-based compensation granted to employees.
Its net loss for the year hit $45bn, though this was largely due to an accounting adjustment.
Bytedance, which was founded in 2012, was valued at $180bn after a funding round late last year. Reports have put its current value at as high as $300bn.
The company is now said to be considering a stock market float in Hong Kong or New York, though the plans are not believed to be firm.
Bytedance has found itself at the centre of political tensions between Washington and Beijing in recent years after former US President Donald Trump launched a crackdown on Tiktok.
But President Biden has since revoked his predecessor’s efforts to force a sale of Tiktok’s US business, granting a reprieve for the popular social media platform.
However, Biden’s administration has instead issued a new executive order targeting personal data collection by apps such as Tiktok and Wechat.
The company is also facing tougher scrutiny in its home country as regulators look to crack down on some of China’s biggest tech giants.
The figures come a month after Tiktok boss Zhang Yiming announced unexpectedly that he planned to step down from the company.
In the memo Zhang reportedly said he was already moving away from the daily responsibilities of chief executive, adding that he aimed to hand over fully to his successor Liang Rubo by the end of the year.
Bytedance has been contacted for comment.