ByteDance facts for kids
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Headquarters at Building 2, Dazhongsi Square (also known as 1733 Commercial Space), Beijing
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Native name
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字节跳动有限公司
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Formerly
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Beijing ByteDance Technology Co., Ltd. (2012-2018) Douyin Group (HK) Ltd. (2018–2022) |
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| Industry | Internet |
| Founded | 13 March 2012 |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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| Revenue |  US$155 billion (2024) |
| Owner | Zhang Yiming (over 50% voting control) Sequoia Capital SoftBank Group KKR & Co. |
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Number of employees
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c. 150,000 (2023) |
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| Zijie Tiaodong | |||||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 字节跳动 | ||||||||||||||
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ByteDance Ltd. is a big internet technology company. It has its main offices in Beijing, China. The company is legally set up in the Cayman Islands.
Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo started ByteDance with a team in 2012. They created popular video-sharing apps like TikTok and Douyin. ByteDance also made the news platform Toutiao and the video-editing app CapCut. Another app they developed is Lemon8, which is also for sharing videos.
ByteDance has faced questions from governments and media in different countries. These questions are about security, privacy, and censorship.
Contents
How ByteDance Started
In 2009, a software engineer named Zhang Yiming worked with his friend Liang Rubo. They started a real estate search website called 99fang.com. In early 2012, they rented an apartment in Zhongguancun. There, they began creating an app that would use big data to sort news. This app would show news based on what users liked. It later became known as Toutiao. In March of that year, Yiming and Liang officially founded ByteDance.
First Apps Launched
In March 2012, ByteDance released its first app, Neihan Duanzi. This app let users share jokes, funny pictures, and videos. It had over 200 million users before the Chinese government shut it down in 2018.
In August 2012, ByteDance launched the first version of Toutiao. This app became their main product. It was a platform for news and other content.
In January 2013, ByteDance planned to make an English version of Toutiao. The goal was to get users in English-speaking countries. At that time, many apps were competing for video views and user attention.
Growth and New Products
In March 2016, ByteDance started its research part, called the ByteDance AI Lab. It was led by Wei-Ying Ma, who used to work at Microsoft Research Asia.
From late 2016 to 2017, ByteDance bought other companies and launched new products. In December 2016, they invested in BABE, a news platform in Indonesia. In February 2017, ByteDance bought Flipagram. This app was later renamed Vigo Video. Vigo Video closed down on October 31, 2020.
In November 2017, ByteDance bought musical.ly for about US$1 billion. At that time, TikTok was only in India, and musical.ly was used worldwide. To make TikTok global, ByteDance combined musical.ly with TikTok on August 2, 2018. They kept the name TikTok. Another important purchase was News Republic from Cheetah Mobile in November 2017.
Since 2018, ByteDance has been in legal disagreements with Tencent. ByteDance said Tencent was blocking their content. Tencent also sued ByteDance for using user profiles and data without permission.
In December 2018, ByteDance sued Huxiu, a Chinese tech news site. Huxiu had reported that ByteDance's Indian news app, Helo, was spreading fake news.
In March 2021, the Financial Times reported that ByteDance was part of a group of Chinese companies. These companies aimed to find ways around Apple's privacy rules.
In April 2021, ByteDance created a new part called BytePlus. This part helps other companies use the technology behind TikTok to make similar apps.
In August 2021, ByteDance bought Pico, a company that makes virtual reality headsets.
In June 2022, the Financial Times reported that many staff left ByteDance's London office. This was due to differences in how the company was run.
In March 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported on a practice called "horse racing." This is where several teams build the same product. The team with the best version gets more support.
In April 2023, ByteDance applied for a trademark for a book publisher called 8th Note Press.
In December 2023, The Verge reported that ByteDance used OpenAI's API for its own generative AI projects. OpenAI then paused ByteDance's account to investigate if rules were broken. ByteDance said it had a license for using the API outside China. They also said their own chatbot is only for China. They removed ChatGPT-generated data from their training data in mid-2023.
In May 2024, ByteDance let go of many employees from its global user operations, content, and marketing teams. The global user operations team was closed, and remaining employees were moved to other roles.
In June 2024, ByteDance launched a new app called Whee. It is for sharing images and connecting with friends.
In February 2025, ByteDance showed OmniHuman-1. This AI system can create realistic human videos from just one image and motion signals. It is still being researched and is not yet available to the public.
How ByteDance is Run
Money and Ownership
ByteDance gets money from investors like Jeff Yass's Susquehanna International Group, Primavera Capital Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, SoftBank Group, Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, and Hillhouse Capital Group. In November 2024, the company was thought to be worth $300 billion.
ByteDance is owned by investors outside China (60%), its founders and Chinese investors (20%), and employees (20%). In 2021, a Chinese government fund bought a small part of ByteDance's main Chinese company. This gave the government some influence.
In 2023, G42 also bought a part of ByteDance.
Leadership
Zhang Yiming was the chairman and CEO of ByteDance from 2012 until 2021. Then, co-founder Liang Rubo became the CEO.
In May 2020, Kevin Mayer, who led Disney's streaming business, joined ByteDance. He was the CEO of TikTok and COO of ByteDance from June to August 2020. In 2021, Shou Zi Chew, who used to be the CFO of Xiaomi, became the CEO of TikTok.
In 2014, ByteDance created an internal committee for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Zhang Fuping, a vice president, is the CCP Committee Secretary for the company.
Board of Directors
As of November 2024, the company's board members include:
- Liang Rubo, CEO of ByteDance
- Arthur Dantchik, from Susquehanna International
- William E. Ford, CEO of General Atlantic
- Xavier Niel, a French businessman
- Neil Shen, from HongShan
Working with Others
ByteDance works with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. This partnership helps the ministry with its public relations.
In 2018, ByteDance helped start the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence. This was supported by the Chinese government.
In 2019, ByteDance formed partnerships with Beijing Time and Shanghai Dongfang. These are state-controlled media companies. However, ByteDance announced in 2021 that the partnership with Shanghai Dongfang never fully started and was ended.
In June 2022, ByteDance worked with Shanghai United Media Group. They planned to help develop online influencers.
Influencing Policy
ByteDance has tried to influence government decisions in the United States. They have talked to the United States Congress, White House, and other government departments. They focused on bills like the United States Innovation and Competition Act.
ByteDance's lobbying team in the US includes former US Senators and Representatives. The company has spent a lot of money on lobbying. From 2019 to July 2023, they spent over $17.7 million. In 2023 alone, they spent $8.7 million.
In March 2024, ByteDance started its own marketing campaign. This was in response to groups that wanted to ban TikTok. They spent $2.1 million in states where Senate elections were close.
ByteDance Products
CapCut
CapCut is a video editing software that is easy for beginners to use. It was first released in April 2020. As of March 2023, CapCut had over 200 million active users each month. The Wall Street Journal reported that it was downloaded more than the TikTok app in March 2023. It was the second most downloaded app in the U.S. that month.
Douyin
Douyin is the Chinese version of TikTok. It was first released in September 2016. The app is a social media platform for short videos. It has more advanced features than the international TikTok. TikTok and Douyin look similar but cannot access each other's content. Their servers are in the regions where each app is available.
Lark
Lark is ByteDance's tool for teamwork in businesses. It was first released in 2019. Lark was first made for ByteDance's own employees. Later, it was made available to other companies in some areas.
TikTok
TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service. It lets users make short videos, like dance, comedy, or educational clips. TikTok was first released in September 2017. On November 9, 2017, ByteDance bought Musical.ly for up to US$1 billion. They combined it with TikTok on August 2, 2018, keeping the TikTok name.
TikTok Music
TikTok Music used to be called Resso. It launched in Indonesia and Brazil in July 2023. In October 2023, it also became available in Mexico, Singapore, and Australia.
This platform lets users share song lyrics and comments while listening to full songs. ByteDance has agreements with music companies like Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Resso closed in India in January 2024 due to local market conditions.
On September 24, 2024, ByteDance announced that TikTok Music would shut down on November 28, 2024.
Toutiao
Toutiao was launched in August 2012. It started as a news recommendation engine. Over time, it grew into a platform with different types of content. This included text, images, questions and answers, short posts, and videos.
In January 2014, the company created "Toutiaohao." This platform was made to attract more people to create content. Later that year, they added video features. Toutiao helped content creators find an audience by showing content based on user interests.
In 2017, Toutiao bought Flipagram. ByteDance later added more features to Toutiao. These included a project to find missing people, which helped find over 13,000 people by June 2020. They also added Toutiao Video, later called Xigua Video, for short video clips. Toutiao Search, a search engine, was also added.
Xigua Video
Xigua Video is an online video-sharing platform. It was first launched as Toutiao Video in 2016. It features short and mid-length videos made by users. It also produces its own film and TV content.
Nuverse
Nuverse started in 2019 as a video game publishing company. Its first game released outside mainland China was Warhammer 40,000: Lost Crusade in 2021. Later in 2021, Moonton became part of Nuverse.
In October 2022, the studio launched Marvel Snap worldwide. In November 2023, Reuters reported that ByteDance was changing Nuverse and stepping back from gaming.
On January 18, 2025, Marvel Snap was temporarily banned in the United States. Service was restored on January 21. On January 27, the game reappeared in the App Store.
Volcano Engine
Volcano Engine is ByteDance's cloud computing part. It was founded in 2021. In September 2024, Volcano Engine introduced its own tool for creating AI-generated videos.
Whee
Whee is an app for sharing images and messages. It launched to the public in June 2024, but not in the US.
Other Products and Purchases
- Gogokid was an online English learning platform for children. It started in May 2018. In August 2021, ByteDance announced that the app would close. Most of its staff were laid off due to new rules in China.
- Moonton was bought by ByteDance in 2021. It made the mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
- Neihan Duanzi, ByteDance's first app, was shut down in 2018 by the government.
- Party Island is a social media app. Users can create avatars, join virtual events, and chat. It also has a messaging feature. It was open for public testing in July 2022.
- TopBuzz was a platform for videos, articles, and news. It launched in 2015 and closed in 2020.
- 8th Note Press is a publisher started by ByteDance in 2023. In June 2025, 8th Note Press suddenly closed. It returned publishing rights to authors.
Concerns About ByteDance
ByteDance has faced concerns about privacy and censorship. This includes content about human rights in Tibet and the persecution of Uyghurs in China. There are also worries about how China's laws might affect ByteDance and its employees.
In September 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report. It said that companies, including ByteDance, collect a lot of user data. This data collection could put people at risk of identity theft, stalking, and other problems.
Government Rules and ByteDance
China
In April 2018, China's media regulator ordered Toutiao and Neihan Duanzi to be removed from app stores. Neihan Duanzi was accused of having "vulgar" content. The app was permanently shut down. ByteDance's CEO said the app did not fit with "socialist core values." He promised to work more with authorities. After the shutdown, ByteDance said it would hire more Chinese Communist Party members. They also said they would increase their content censors.
As of 2019, ByteDance's Beijing office had police stationed there. This was so illegal content could be reported quickly. In November 2019, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) told ByteDance to remove "slanderous" information from Toutiao. In April 2020, the CAC ordered ByteDance to take down its Lark app. They said it could be used to get around internet censorship. In January 2021, Chinese regulators fined ByteDance for spreading "vulgar information." In April 2021, ByteDance was among 13 online platforms told to follow stricter data rules. In May 2021, the CAC said ByteDance had collected and used personal information illegally.
In March 2021, a ByteDance company was fined for breaking antitrust rules.
In April 2022, ByteDance said it would report content on Toutiao and Douyin that went against official CCP history.
In November 2022, during the 2022 COVID-19 protests in China, the CAC told ByteDance to increase its censorship of the protests.
In November 2023, Forbes reported that Chinese government authorities accessed ByteDance's internal workplace tool, Feishu. This happened before a major political meeting.
India
The Indian Government banned CapCut and TikTok in June 2020. They said it was for national security reasons. The ban became permanent in January 2021. In March 2021, the Indian government froze ByteDance's bank accounts. They said it was for alleged tax evasion, which ByteDance disagreed with.
Ireland
In 2023, ByteDance was looked at by the Central Bank of Ireland. This was because of problems with its payment division's rules against money laundering.
Taiwan
In December 2022, Taiwan started an investigation into ByteDance. They suspected the company was operating an illegal branch in Taiwan.
Turkey
In 2022, Turkey's Financial Crimes Investigation Board started an investigation into ByteDance. This was about large money transfers involving TikTok accounts. They suspected money laundering or terrorism financing.
United States
In 2019, ByteDance's TikTok was fined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This was for breaking the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. In response, ByteDance added a kids-only mode to TikTok. This mode blocked video uploads, user profiles, direct messages, and comments. In August 2024, the FTC and U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit. They said TikTok broke the rules of a 2019 agreement with the FTC.
US lawmakers have questioned TikTok and ByteDance. They worry about the Chinese government watching users. Former U.S. President Trump wanted TikTok to be sold or banned. His orders were later stopped by courts and removed by President Biden. In August 2020, China updated its export rules. Experts said this could give Chinese authorities a say in any sale of ByteDance's technology to foreign companies.
In March 2023, the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation started an investigation. This was after ByteDance employees tracked journalists to find internal leaks. ByteDance fired four employees in response.
In March 2024, the House of Representatives passed a bill. If it became law, ByteDance would have to sell TikTok or the app would be banned. In April, the United States Congress passed a changed version of the bill. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on April 24, 2024. This gave ByteDance until January 19, 2025, to sell TikTok. Around 10:29 P.M EST, ByteDance and its apps were banned in the United States.
In November 2024, Donald Trump changed his mind. He spoke against a ban of the platform in the US. This happened after a ByteDance investor donated to his election campaign. On January 18, 2025, along with TikTok, four more ByteDance apps were banned in the United States. These included CapCut, Lemon8, Gauth, and Hypic. This was due to a US bill.
TikTok, Inc. v. Garland
TikTok, Inc. v. Garland is a legal case in the United States. It involves TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance. The case challenges a law that could ban TikTok in the US.
The law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, was signed in April 2024. It requires ByteDance to sell TikTok within a certain time. If they don't, the app would be banned from app stores in the US.
TikTok and ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the US government. They argued that the law violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution. This amendment protects freedom of speech.
The case is ongoing and is being watched closely. It could set a new standard for how foreign-owned apps are treated in the US.
See also
In Spanish: ByteDance para niños
