ByteDance Sees Revenues Double As TikTok Expands

Chinese company ByteDance, which operates TikTok, saw its revenues more than double last year as usage of the video app skyrocketed.

In a memo to employees the privately held company said revenues increased 111 percent to $34.3 billion (£24.7bn).

The company, which was under pressure last year to sell its US operations to a third party, also reported a 93 percent increase in gross profit to $19bn.

Having launched worldwide only four years ago, TikTok hit 1.9 billion active monthly users in December.

Revenue growth

The figures include Douyin, the Chinese version of the app, and products such as news aggregation app Toutiao.

ByteDance reported a net loss of $45bn for the year, which it attributed to a one-off acounting adjustment, and not operational performance.

The operating loss was $2.1bn, compard to $684m profit in 2019, mainly due to the cost of share-based compensation for shareholders.

Analysts have estimated the value of the Beijing-basd company at up to $100bn.

It recently hired former Xiaomi executive Shou Zi Chew as its financial officer, adding to speculation of an initial public offering.

Government pressure

President Joe Biden earlier this month revoked an executive order by the previous administration to ban TikTok and Chinese app WeChat in the US.

The order had faced a series of legal challenges and was never implemented.

Last week Reuters reported that Biden had signed a new order earlier this month that would force Chinese apps to take stricter measures to protect user data to continue operating in the US.

In May ByteDance said chief executive and co-founder Zhang Yiming would step down into a new role by the end of the year, to be succeeded by co-founder Rubo Liang.