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TikTokâ€™s parent company is valued at up to $ 250 billion

Shares in ByteDance, the parent company behind call-to-action video creation app TikTok, are trading at a company valuation of more than $ 250 billion on the secondary market.

According to Bloomberg, the valuation of the Beijing-based company has surged in recent weeks as investors have placed their trust in TikTok and founder Zhang Yiming is weighing options for an IPO. In the latest fundraising round, ByteDance is valued at $ 140 billion. And just 1 month ago, the figure was just nearly 200 billion USD.

Zhang, who founded ByteDance in 2012, has demonstrated his rare ability to consistently create products that have been wildly successful despite competing head-on with giants like Tencent and Alibaba. Zhang’s first success was Toutiao, the news app that caused fever but is now overtaken by TikTok. Last year, ByteDance’s revenue more than doubled, to about $ 35 billion.

ByteDance had trouble with the administration of former President Donald Trump – who once vowed to force a Chinese company to sell TikTok to a US company because of concerns related to national security. However, recently the Biden administration said it would reassess the situation, opening the door for ByteDance to retain the entire fastest growing business segment.

Zhang recently appointed Chew Shou Zi as CFO, sparking speculation that ByteDance is going to go public. Chew was the “architect” that designed Xiaomi’s IPO two years ago. In November last year, Bloomberg reported that ByteDance was planning to list a number of businesses, including Douyin (the domestic version of TikTok) on the Hong Kong stock market. However, it is increasingly likely that Zhang will choose to put the group on the floor.

Kuaishou Technology, the smaller rival of ByteDance, just listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange last month and immediately created a fever. Shares of Kuaishou more than doubled their IPO price, pushing its market cap to $ 140 billion. Analysts said that may be the reason why investors reevaluate the potential of ByteDance.

However ByteDance is still facing legal risks. In addition to the risk of having to sell TikTok in the US market, Beijing officials are also aggressively implementing a campaign to tighten the management of Internet giants. In early March, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the government would closely monitor platform companies that had accumulated too much data and power in the market.

~ Via CHUBK