Beijing-based ByteDance has reached a market valuation of between USD 100 billion and USD 140 billion in private markets, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources.
Following recent private transactions, ByteDance’s value has risen over 33% from 2018, when it was valued at USD 75 billion after a major round of funding where it collected USD 3 billion from SoftBank Group Corp and other investors.
The company, which owns viral short-video app TikTok, Douyin, and news aggregator Toutiao, among other apps, is one of the world’s most valuable startup, surpassing Twitter and Snap. Another Chinese startup, Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Financial, the company behind Alipay, has reportedly reached a valuation in the secondary market of USD 200 million in January, according to Reuters.
Per Sensor Tower data, ByteDance’s TikTok, combined with Douyin, had over 2 billion downloads in Apple and Google’s app stores worldwide by the end of April. Adding installs from third-party Android stores, the figure could be even higher.
Earlier this week, the firm named former Disney’s streaming head Kevin Mayer as TikTok’s new CEO. The 58-year-old businessman will also serve as chief operating officer of ByteDance, while Alex Zhu, current president of TikTok, will oversee strategy and product design as ByteDance’s vice president of Product & Strategy.
This article is part of KrASIA’s “China Brief” section, where KrASIA’s reporters will provide quick daily updates about the tech ecosystem in China.