ByteDance is riding high on the success of Tiktok. Investors have shown immense confidence to invest their money in Tiktok parent company Bytedance. In recent private transactions, the ByteDance market cap has reached $250 billion. The company is also planning its Initial Public Offering(IPO) soon.
Exponential Growth in ByteDance Market Cap
In a recent boost to ByteDance, the company has raised an undisclosed amount from the investors. Though the amount is not known, it has skyrocketed the market valuation of the Chinese startup giant to $250 billion.
Zhang Yiming, the founder of Bytedance, is showing great enthusiasm to start the IPO of its startup. When contacted, Bytedance spokesperson did comment anything on the latest fundraising. Bytedance market cap reached $140 billion in the last funding round as per the reports of CB insights.
This is the second surge in the market value of Bytedance within 1 month. In February, the company had a market cap of $200 billion with private transactions. Now, with the latest valuation of $250 billion, it has become more valuable than Exxon Mobil Corp. or Coca-Cola Co.
Zhang founded Bytedance in 2012. It has created popular services in competition with giants like Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. He first created news service Toutiao. Later, he founded Tiktok and Douyin, two video apps. Tiktok has brought a big change in the way users consumed video. Short video success is due to the popularity of Tiktok. Bytedance revenue doubled to $35 billion in 2020.
Controversies Related to ByteDance Operations
Bytedance got involved in so many controversies globally. Initially, India banned Tiktok due to security and privacy concerns. Though the real reason was due to the tussle between India and China forces on LAC(Line of Actual Control). Bytedance tried hard to start its services in India. Finally, it lost all hopes and recently it fired all employees of Tiktok related operations. The company is also in talks with some Indian startups to sell its Indian assets of Tiktok.
In the US also, ex USA President Donald Trump put restrictions on Bytedance operations. Recently, the company got relief after the Biden administration lifted the restrictions.
Zhang recently hired Xiaomi’s Chew Shou Zi as the Chief Financial Officer of Bytedance. This step indicates that Bytedance is getting prepared for its much-awaited IPO. Chew was looking at the IPO operations of Xiaomi for the last 2 years. It will make the Bytedance IPO process simple due to his vast experience. Chew also has good exposure related to international operations.
Earlier, Bloomberg reported that Zhang planned to start Douyin IPO in Hong Kong. The latest operations suggest that he will take Bytedance as a whole company public.
Kuaishou Technology, Bytedance rival, went public in February and its stock got doubled to $140 billion. It is prompting Bytedance to go public as soon as possible. The company is eyeing a market valuation of $350 billion with the help of existing investors.
Bytedance still has some unfinished business in the US related to the regulatory. It is not sure whether the US administration will allow the Bytedance functionalities in long run. Beijing’s administration has also changed a lot of policies to crack down on the country’s powerful technology giants. President Xi Jinping is planning to regulate the tech giants through the state-backed entity to have a check on the kind of data these companies are collecting.
