ByteDance’s valuation has risen at least a third to more than US$100-billion (R1.8-trillion) in recent private share transactions, people familiar with the matter said, reflecting expectations the owner of video phenom TikTok will keep pulling in advertisers despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
Stock in the world’s most valuable start-up has changed hands recently at a price that suggests its value has risen more than 33% from about $75-billion during a major round of funding two years ago, the people said, requesting not to be named because the issue isn’t public. Some of those transactions valued the Chinese company at as much as $140-billion, one person said. The trades are private transactions and may not fully reflect broader investor expectations.
ByteDance has grown into a potent online force in recent years, propelled in part by a TikTok short video platform that’s taken teenagers around the world by storm. Investors are keen to grab a slice of a company that draws some 1.5 billion monthly active users to a family of apps that includes Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese twin, as well as news service Toutiao. That’s despite American lawmakers raising privacy and censorship concerns about its operation. This week, it poached Walt Disney Co streaming czar Kevin Mayer to become chief operating officer of TikTok.
The company was in the very early stages of exploring a share sale abroad last year, people familiar have said. But any float remains a longer-term objective given ByteDance remains well-funded, the people added. ByteDance declined to comment on Wednesday.
Its most recent market valuation puts the Chinese start-up in the ballpark of industry stalwarts such as HSBC or IBM. ByteDance — whose TikTok remains the venue of choice for half a billion lip-syncing, dancing music video aficionados — is now going head to head with Chinese Internet leaders from Tencent to Alibaba Group for user traffic and marketing dollars.
Hiring spree
It’s also strengthening its operations in newer arenas such as e-commerce and gaming. ByteDance this year kicked off a wave of hiring it envisions hitting 40 000 new jobs in 2020, hoping to match Alibaba’s headcount at a time technology corporations across the globe are furloughing or reducing staff.
Longer term, the company will have to grapple with rising scrutiny from Washington. Two prominent senators have urged investigations into TikTok, labeling it a national security threat. — Reported by Lulu Yilun Chen, Vinicy Chan and Zheping Huang, (c) 2020 Bloomberg LP
