Tiktok parent Bytedance with jump in sales in 2022
The parent company of the popular short video app Tiktok, which originates from China, closed the past year with a jump in sales, according to media reports. The group's Bytedance 2022 revenues increased by more than 30 percent to over 80 billion US dollars, trade media write.
Bytedance gave the figure in a letter to its investors, Bloomberg reported Monday. Bytedance is not listed on the stock exchange and is not required to publish financial figures.
Exactly how much Tiktok contributed to Group sales remained unclear. It is likely to remain a small proportion, while the bulk of the business is generated in the home market. Bytedance operates the separate Chinese Tiktok variant Douyin there. "The Information" pointed out that Tiktok had forecast advertising revenue of around ten billion dollars for the year in November, two and a half times that of 2021. Tiktok has more than one billion users worldwide.
Under political pressure in the USA
The short-video platform is under pressure in the West following warnings that Chinese authorities are spying on its users. Tiktok rejects the suspicions and courts trust with plans for data storage in the U.S. and Europe, as well as independent oversight.
In the U.S. - where Tiktok has more than 150 million users - the model doesn't seem to be enough. There, discussions are intensifying about a ban on the app. According to media reports, U.S. authorities are demanding a withdrawal of Chinese shareholders.
Tiktok stresses that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese group, since Bytedance is 60 percent owned by Western investors and its official headquarters are in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Critics counter that with a 20 percent share, the Chinese founders held control thanks to higher voting rights, and Bytedance has a large headquarters in Beijing.
