Surname 1

Student Name:
Professor’s Name:
Course Name:
Date Submitted:
ByteDance Ltd. Analysis
ByteDance Ltd. is a Beijing-based international internet technology firm founded it in

2012. ByteDance is a developer of TikTok and Douyin, a unique Chinese TikTok partner, video

sharing network services, and apps. Toutiao's news and information platform have also

improved. ByteDance has about 2 billion active users on all multimedia platforms as of June

2021. Bytedance is a technological startup that employs artificial intelligence to connect people

to huge amounts of information. Toutiao, the company's flagship app, delivers customized news,

videos, and material from thousands of sources and millions of users in real-time, based on user

behaviors such as clicks, and comments. This paper analyses the company’s status and its

financial status for the last 5 years.

Toutiao connects its customers with custom advertising campaigns using AI technology

and approaches like data mining and user behavior analysis. Toutiao increased from 70 million

to 120 million users in 2017, with users spending an average of 74 minutes each day on the app

(SHI). TikTok, the company's tool for making music videos, makes it simple to edit by

suggesting AI-generated cuts and extra effects. From Flipagram and Musical in the United States

to the News Republic in Europe, Bytedance has spent the last year acquiring and investing in

applications around the world where its AI can improve content. Bytedance and BuzzFeed

agreed to distribute BuzzFeed content across all of their apps in January 2018. Toutiao also

includes a geo-based notification system called "Lost Person Alert," which generates visual
 Surname 2

information for app users in various regions and helps to detect a great number of missing

people.

By displaying advertisements, TikTok and other platforms make money for ByteDance.

Businesses can use the forum to promote their services and products on their website. In June

2020, ByteDance released TikTok for Business, allowing marketers to run advertisements in the

basic video-sharing app. Advertising, brand capture, and hashtag-named challenges are examples

of the ad formats available on TikTok. In-stream advertising appears when watching videos as

users move through the sites, just like how ads appear in Instagram News. When you initially

open the app, you will see the Brand Takeover ad. A business may design its hashtag and also

challenge and then pay to appear on Discover's human feed with Trademark Hashtag Challenges.

To play an ad on Tik Tok, the business must pay some amount of money to Tik Tok. It currently

has a well-designed ad program featuring advertisements and much more, which is one of the

most essential ways it makes money.  ByteDance also sells the smartest AI technology that

powers its Tik Tok video system on websites and applications overseas of China, with customers

including Goat, the US-based fashion app WeGo, a travel booking site in Singapore, and

Chilibeli, an Indonesian online shopping start-up (China Economic Review n.p).

ByteDance is now examining the rise of online learning, fintech, and video gaming.

ByteDance has redesigned its algorithm-driven business, dividing it into six segments, two of

which include TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin. One of the greatest challenges for

ByteDance was the resignation of its founding chairman and CEO Zhang Yiming which has been

and headache as to who to replace him. There have also been restrictions by the Chinese

government on data security with recently being ordered by the Tech Industry minister to carry out

internal inspections and remove any illegal online activities and enforce protection and privacy for
 Surname 3

new video games which has slowed down its venture into the gaming industry. The Chinese

government also has put restrictions on companies with over 1 million users from trading shares

outside China hence needs to reassure regulators that data for users will not be compromised.

ByteDance is still a privately-owned company hence has not yet offered its stock to the

market (Feng n.p). ByteDance's valuation has risen slightly in recent months, following the

company's decision to postpone its first public offering. Total revenue has increased by 70 percent

year over year, and surpassed the expected collection of $ 58 billion by 2021. By 2020, its entire

revenue increased by more than 100 percent to $ 34.3 billion. China's overall internet sales growth

slowed to 9.3 percent in 2021, down from 13.8 percent the previous year. This is due to China's

tough laws on large technological businesses, which are a major issue, and its operating losses of $

2 billion, the growth rate slowed from more than 100 percent in the growth year attained in 2020

(Reuters n.p). Given the recent worsening in local home internet administration, ByteDance may

not be public for another year or more.

Revenue $ Profit Chart

Revenue in $ Billions Profit in $ Billions

Figure 1.1: ByteDance Revenue and Profit Chart

Works Cited

China Economic Review. "ByteDance Starts Selling TikTok’s AI to Other Companies." China

Economic Review, 5 July 2021, [Link]/bytedance-starts-selling-

tiktoks-ai-to-other-companies/.

Feng, Coco. "ByteDance Valuation Reaches US$400 Billion in Anonymous Online

Trades." South China Morning Post, 14 Oct. 2021,

[Link]/tech/big-tech/article/3152326/tiktok-owner-bytedances-valuation-

reaches-us400-billion-anonymous.

Reuters. "TikTok Owner ByteDance's Revenue Growth Slowed to 70% in 2021." The Economic

Times, Reuters, 21 Jan. 2022, [Link]/tech/tech-bytes/tiktok-

owner-bytedances-revenue-growth-slowed-to-70-in-2021/articleshow/[Link].

SHI, Xiaoye. Analysis of ByteDance with a close look on Douyin / TikTok. 2019. Swiss Federal

Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), PhD dissertation.