Jump to content

ByteDance

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Thucydides411 (talk | contribs) at 21:05, 3 December 2022 (→‎Funding and ownership: Specify size of stake). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

ByteDance Ltd.
Native name
字节跳动有限公司
Company typePrivate
IndustryInternet
Founded13 March 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-13)
Founders
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Liang Rubo (CEO)
  • Erich Andersen (global GC)[2]
  • Kelly Zhang (CEO of ByteDance China)[3]
  • Lidong Zhang (Chairman of ByteDance China)[3]
Products
RevenueIncrease US$58 billion (2021)[4]
Number of employees
~130,000[5]
Subsidiaries
Websitebytedance.com

ByteDance Ltd. (Chinese: 字节跳动; pinyin: Zìjié Tiàodòng) is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands.[1]

Founded by Zhang Yiming, Liang Rubo and a team of others in 2012, ByteDance developed the video-sharing social networking services and apps TikTok and Chinese-specific counterpart Douyin. The company is also the developer of the news platform Toutiao. As of June 2021, ByteDance hosts 1.9 billion monthly active users across all of its platforms.[6][needs update]

ByteDance has attracted regulatory attention in several countries over surveillance, privacy, and censorship concerns.[7][8]

History

Background

In 2009, software engineer and entrepreneur Zhang Yiming collaborated with his friend Liang Rubo to co-found 99fang.com, a real estate search engine.[9] In early 2012, the pair rented an apartment in Zhongguancun and, along with several other 99fang employees, began developing an app that would use big data algorithms to classify news according to users' preferences, which would later become Toutiao.[10] That March, Yiming and Liang founded ByteDance.[11]

Launch of first apps

In March 2012, ByteDance launched its first app, called Neihan Duanzi (内涵段子, lit. "profound gags"). This allowed users to circulate jokes, memes, and humorous videos. Before being forced by the Chinese government to shut down in 2018, Neihan Duanzi had over 200 million users.[12]

In August 2012, ByteDance launched the first version of news and content platform Toutiao (头条, lit. "headlines"), which would become their core product.[13]

Expansion

In March 2016, ByteDance established its research arm, called the ByteDance AI Lab. It is headed by Wei-Ying Ma, the former assistant managing director of Microsoft Research Asia.[14][15] The same year, the ByteDance AI Lab and Peking University co-developed Xiaomingbot (张小明), an AI bot that wrote news articles.[16]

From late 2016 until 2017, ByteDance made a number of acquisitions and new product launches. In December 2016, it invested in the Indonesian news recommendation platform BABE.[17] Two months later, in February 2017, it acquired Flipagram, which was later merged with Musical.ly into TikTok upon the latter's acquisition in November 2017. Other notable acquisitions include the UGC short video platform Hypstar (Vigo Video) in July 2017,[18] and News Republic from Cheetah Mobile in November 2017.[19]

In December 2018, ByteDance sued Chinese technology news site Huxiu for defamation after Huxiu reported that ByteDance's Indian-language news app Helo was propagating fake news.[20]

In March 2021, the Financial Times reported that ByteDance was part of a group of Chinese companies that aimed to deploy technology to circumvent Apple's privacy policies.[21][22] The following month, ByteDance announced that it had created a new division called BytePlus to distribute the underlying platform of TikTok, so that others may launch similar apps.[23]

In August 2021, ByteDance acquired Pico, an Oculus-like virtual reality startup.[24]

Corporate affairs

Management

Zhang Yiming was ByteDance's chairman and CEO from its founding in 2012 until 2021, when co-founder Liang Rubo took over as CEO.[25]

On 19 May 2020, ByteDance and Disney released an announcement that Kevin Mayer, head of Disney's streaming business, would join ByteDance. From June 2020 to his resignation 26 August 2020, Mayer served as the CEO of TikTok and the COO of ByteDance, reporting directly to the company CEO Zhang Yiming.[26][27] In 2021, Chew Shouzi, former CFO of Xiaomi, took over as TikTok CEO.[28]

As with many Chinese companies, ByteDance has an internal CCP committee with Vice President Zhang Fuping serving as the company's CCP Committee Secretary.[29]

Funding and ownership

ByteDance is financially backed by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, SoftBank Group, Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, and Hillhouse Capital Group.[30] As of March 2021, it was estimated to be valued at $250 billion in private trades.[31]

In April 2021, a state-owned enterprise owned by the Cyberspace Administration of China and China Media Group, the China Internet Investment Fund, purchased a 1% stake in ByteDance's main Chinese entity and placed a government official, Wu Shugang, on its board of directors.[32][33][34][35][36] The Economist and Reuters have described the Chinese government's stake in ByteDance as a golden share investment.[36][37]

Partnerships

ByteDance's China business has a strategic partnership with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security for the ministry's public relations efforts.[38] In 2019, ByteDance formed joint ventures with Beijing Time, a publisher controlled by the Beijing municipal CCP committee, and with Shanghai Dongfang, a state media firm in Shanghai.[39][40] In 2021, ByteDance announced that its partnership with Shanghai Dongfang had never been in operation and was disbanded.[41]

Lobbying

ByteDance's lobbying efforts in the U.S. are led by Michael Beckerman.[42] According to disclosures filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, ByteDance has lobbied the United States Congress, White House, Department of Commerce, Department of State, and the Department of Defense. ByteDance's lobbying has included hiring K&L Gates, LGL Advisors, and other firms to influence bills such as the United States Innovation and Competition Act, American Innovation and Choice Online Act, and the annual National Defense Authorization Act.[42]

Products

CapCut

First released to the public in April 2020, CapCut is a video editing software made for beginners.[43]

Douyin

First released to the public in September 2016, Douyin (Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: Dǒuyīn), previously named A.me, is the Chinese version of TikTok. The application is a short-form video social media platform that differs from its international counterpart version by having more advanced features, such as e-commerce.[44] TikTok and Douyin have almost the same user interface but no access to each other's content. Their servers are each based in the market where the respective app is available.[45]

Lark

First released to the public in 2019, Lark is ByteDance's enterprise collaboration platform.[46] Lark was originally developed as an internal tool, becoming ByteDance's primary internal communication and collaboration platform, but was eventually made available to external users in certain markets.[47]

TikTok

First released to the public in September 2017, TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service[48] used to make short-form videos, from genres like dance, comedy, and education.[49][50] On 9 November 2017, ByteDance acquired Shanghai-based social media start-up Musical.ly for up to US$1 billion. They combined it and prior acquisition Flipagram[51][52] into TikTok on 2 August 2018, keeping the TikTok name.

Toutiao

Toutiao (Chinese: 今日头条; pinyin: Jīnrì Tóutiáo), launched in August 2012,[13] started out as a news recommendation engine and gradually evolved into a platform delivering content in various formats, such as texts, images, question-and-answer posts, microblogs, and videos.[53][54]

In January 2014, the company created the "Toutiaohao" (头条号) platform to attract more content creators. Later in the year, it added video capabilities. Toutiao used interest-based and decentralized distribution to help long tail content creators find an audience.[55]

In 2017, Toutiao acquired Flipagram. ByteDance would later expand Toutiao's features to include: a missing person alerts project whose alerts have helped find 13,116 missing persons as of June 2020;[56] short-form video platform Toutiao Video, later rebranded as Xigua Video (西瓜视频, also known as Watermelon Video), which hosts video clips that are on average 2–5 minutes long;[57] and Toutiao Search, a search engine.[58]

Xigua Video

Initially launched as Toutiao Video in 2016, Xigua Video (Chinese: 西瓜视频; pinyin: Xīguā shìpín) is an online video-sharing platform that features user-created short and mid-length videos and also produces film and television content.[59]

Other products and acquisitions

  • Gogokid was launched in May 2018 as an online English learning platform for children that provides one-on-one classes with native English speakers.[60] In August 2021, ByteDance announced that the app business will be shuttered and most of Gogokid's staff will be laid off, following new regulations imposed on the after-school tutoring industry in China.[61]
  • Moonton was acquired by ByteDance in 2021 and was the developer of the mobile eSports game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.[62][63]
  • Neihan Duanzi, ByteDance's first app, was shut down in 2018 following a crackdown by the national media regulator.
  • Party Island (Chinese: 派对岛; pinyin: Pàiduì dǎo) is a social media app that allows users to create avatars, join virtual events like concerts, and chat with other participants. It also has a messaging function within the app, so users can send texts to each other privately and join group chats. It is open to public testing on July 2022.[64]
  • Resso is ByteDance's "social music streaming app." The platform allows users to highlight and share lyrics, comments and other user-generated content with each other alongside streaming of full-length tracks.[65] Resso says that it has licensing agreements in place with Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Merlin and Beggars Group, among others.[66]
  • TopBuzz was a content platform for videos, articles, breaking news and GIFs.[67] The platform was launched in 2015 and sunsetted in 2020.[68] Former employees reported that TopBuzz was used to push pro-Chinese government messaging to foreign users.[67]

Surveillance and censorship concerns

ByteDance has garnered public attention over surveillance[7] and privacy[69] concerns as well as allegations that it worked with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to censor content on its platforms pertaining to alleged Uyghur genocide and other topics deemed sensitive by the CCP.[70][71][72][73]

Regulation

China

In April 2018, China's state media regulator, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), ordered the temporary removal of Toutiao and Neihan Duanzi from Chinese app stores. The NRTA accused Neihan Duanzi in particular of hosting "vulgar" and "improper" content and "triggering strong sentiments of resentment among internet users".[74] The following day, Neihan Duanzi announced it was permanently shutting down.[74] In response to the shutdown, Yiming issued a letter stating that the app was "incommensurate with socialist core values" and promised that ByteDance would "further deepen cooperation" with the authorities to promote their policies.[75][76] Following the shutdown, ByteDance announced that it would give preference to Chinese Communist Party members in its hiring and increase its censors from 6,000 to 10,000 employees.[77][78][79]

In November 2019, the CAC ordered ByteDance to remove "slanderous" information on Fang Zhimin from Toutiao.[80] In April 2020, the CAC ordered ByteDance to take down its office collaboration tool, Lark, because it could be used to circumvent Internet censorship.[81] In January 2021, Chinese regulators fined ByteDance for spreading "vulgar information."[82][83] In April 2021, ByteDance was among 13 online platforms ordered by the Chinese central bank to adhere to tighter data and financial regulations.[84] The bank stated that ByteDance must conduct comprehensive self-examination and rectification to adhere to the country's laws.[85] In May 2021, the CAC stated that ByteDance had engaged in illegal data collection and misuse of personal information.[86]

In March 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation fined a ByteDance subsidiary and other companies for antitrust violations.[41]

In April 2022, ByteDance announced that it would report users' content on Toutiao and Douyin that engaged in "historical nihilism" in contradiction of official CCP history.[87]

In November 2022, during the 2022 COVID-19 protests in China, the CAC directed ByteDance to intensify its censorship of the protests.[88]

India

Citing national security issues the Indian Government banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps on 29 June 2020.[89] The ban was made permanent in January 2021.[90] In March 2021, the Indian government froze ByteDance's bank accounts in the country for alleged tax evasion, which ByteDance disputed.[91]

United States

Federal Trade Commission action

On 27 February 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FCC) fined TikTok US$5.7 million for collecting information from minors under the age of 13 in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act in the United States.[92][93] ByteDance later added a kids-only mode to TikTok which blocks the upload of videos, the building of user profiles, direct messaging, and commenting on other's videos, while still allowing the viewing and recording of content.[94]

In June 2022, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr described ByteDance as "beholden" to the Chinese government and "required by law to comply with [Chinese government] surveillance demands."[95] Carr called for Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their respective app stores.[95] U.S. senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio also called for an FCC investigation of TikTok and ByteDance.[96]

Executive orders

On 3 August 2020, U.S. president Donald Trump set September 15 as the deadline for TikTok, a social media app under ByteDance, to find a US buyer, and he then issued executive orders that would effectively ban TikTok[97] from operating in the country if it is not sold by ByteDance within 45 days.[98]

On 7 August 2020, ByteDance released a statement in response to the executive order banning US companies and individuals from doing business with it, threatening to resort to the American justice system in order to get "fair treatment."[99] On 14 August 2020, Trump issued an executive order mandating that ByteDance divest from all U.S. operations of TikTok within 90 days.[100] On 28 August 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology announced that any sale of ByteDance's technology to foreign firms is a matter of "national security" and would require prior approval.[101]

References

  1. ^ a b Yang, Yingzhi; Goh, Brenda (17 August 2021). "Beijing took stake and board seat in key ByteDance domestic entity this year". Reuters. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  2. ^ Clark, Dan (24 January 2020). "Microsoft In-House Attorney to Serve as TikTok's First Global General Counsel". Corporate Counsel. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  3. ^ a b Jimenez, Miriam (3 December 2020). "ByteDance names China CEO, chairman; launches music app in Indonesia". S&P Global. Archived from the original on 7 September 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  4. ^ "TikTok owner ByteDance's revenue growth slowed to 70% in 2021". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  5. ^ "TikTok Parent ByteDance Sees Losses Swell in Push for Growth". Wall Street Journal. 6 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  6. ^ Lin, Liza (17 June 2021). "TikTok Owner ByteDance's Annual Revenue Jumps to $34.3 Billion". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  7. ^ a b Baker-White, Emily (20 October 2022). "TikTok Parent ByteDance Planned To Use TikTok To Monitor The Physical Location Of Specific American Citizens". Forbes. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  8. ^ Milmo, Dan (8 November 2022). "TikTok's ties to China: why concerns over your data are here to stay". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
  9. ^ Lu, Shen (20 May 2021). "New ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo getting a warm welcome, leaked posts show". Protocol. Archived from the original on 19 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  10. ^ Wu, Julianna (28 May 2021). "Meet Liang Rubo, the 'executor' and former roommate of Zhang Yiming, who's ready to take over at ByteDance". KrASIA. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  11. ^ Ting, Deanna (30 October 2019). "Everything you need to know about ByteDance, the company behind TikTok". Digiday. Archived from the original on 13 April 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  12. ^ "宁静上《冒犯家族》遭"吐槽" 内涵段子app用户的神评论太犀利了". Phoenix TV (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  13. ^ a b Bischoff, Paul (3 June 2014). "The simple news reader app that's taking China by storm just netted $100 million funding from Sequoia Capital". Tech in Asia. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  14. ^ Feng, Emily (9 May 2017). "Toutiao touts AI for individual news in vast China market". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  15. ^ Knight, Will (26 January 2017). "This Chinese media giant is using machine learning to go after Facebook's lunch". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 23 August 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  16. ^ Xu, Runxin; Cao, Jun; Wang, Mingxuan; Chen, Jiaze; Zhou, Hao; Zeng, Ying; Wang, Yuping; Chen, Li; Yin, Xiang; Zhang, Xijin; Jiang, Songcheng (12 July 2020). "Xiaomingbot: A Multilingual Robot News Reporter". arXiv:2007.08005 [eess.AS].
  17. ^ "Toutiao Pushes Short Video Business Globalization With USD1 Billion Musical.ly Takeover". Yicai Global. Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  18. ^ 文化"走出去"的方式有很多 短视频应用出海成小潮流 [There are many ways to 'go global' for culture, short video applications are becoming a trend]. New.QQ.com. Archived from the original on 23 August 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  19. ^ Jing, Meng (10 November 2017). "China's Toutiao buys teen-favourite video creation app Musical.ly". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 14 November 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  20. ^ Liao, Rita (19 December 2018). "TikTok parent ByteDance sues Chinese news site that exposed fake news problem". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2 March 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  21. ^ "China's tech giants test way around Apple's new privacy rules". Financial Times. 16 March 2021. Archived from the original on 18 March 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  22. ^ Gurman, Mark (19 March 2021). "Apple Warns Against Unauthorized Tracking After China Workaround". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 19 March 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  23. ^ "ByteDance's New BytePlus Division Is Selling TikTok's Underlying Tech". Business Insider. 29 April 2021. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  24. ^ Kharpal, Arjun (30 August 2021). "TikTok owner ByteDance takes first step into virtual reality with latest acquisition". CNBC. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  25. ^ Wang, Echo; Yang, Yingzhi (19 May 2021). "'I'm not very social': ByteDance founder to hand CEO reins to college roommate". Reuters. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  26. ^ Isaac, Mike (28 August 2020). "TikTok Chief Executive Kevin Mayer Resigns". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  27. ^ Leskin, Paige. "TikTok's CEO left 3 months into the job after getting boxed out by ByteDance during TikTok's biggest moment of crisis". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  28. ^ Byford, Sam (20 May 2021). "Founder of TikTok owner ByteDance resigns as CEO". The Verge. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  29. ^ Wang, Yaqiu (24 January 2020). "Targeting TikTok's privacy alone misses a larger issue: Chinese state control". Quartz. Archived from the original on 16 March 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020. Many companies have an internal party committee as part of their governance structure. ByteDance has one, headed by the company's vice president Zhang Fuping, and has since 2017. Party committee members at ByteDance regularly gather to study President Xi Jinping's speeches and pledge to follow the party in technological innovation.
  30. ^ Roumeliotis, Greg (1 November 2019). "U.S. opens national security investigation into TikTok - sources". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2 November 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  31. ^ Yilun Chen, Lulu; Liu, Coco; Huang, Zheping (30 March 2021). "ByteDance Valued at $250 Billion in Private Trades". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  32. ^ "Beijing takes stake, board seat in ByteDance's key China entity - The Information". Reuters. 16 August 2021. Archived from the original on 16 August 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  33. ^ "China state firms invest in TikTok sibling, Weibo chat app". Associated Press. 18 August 2021. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  34. ^ Whalen, Jeanne (17 August 2021). "Chinese government acquires stake in domestic unit of TikTok owner ByteDance in another sign of tech crackdown". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  35. ^ Feng, Coco (17 August 2021). "Chinese government takes minority stake, board seat in TikTok owner ByteDance's main domestic subsidiary". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  36. ^ a b "China's communist authorities are tightening their grip on the private sector". The Economist. 18 November 2021. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  37. ^ "Fretting about data security, China's government expands its use of 'golden shares'". Reuters. 15 December 2021. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  38. ^ 全国公安新媒体矩阵入驻今日头条、抖音仪式在京举行 [A Ceremony is held in Beijing for the Ministry of Public Security's 'New Media Matrix' Launching an Account in Toutiao and Douyin]. Sohu (in Chinese). 25 April 2019. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  39. ^ "Bytedance teams up with a state-run Chinese publisher". The Economist. 21 December 2019. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  40. ^ Galbraith, Andrew; Yang, Yingzhi (14 December 2019). "ByteDance unit establishes venture with Chinese state media firm". Reuters. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  41. ^ a b "China market regulator fines 12 firms for violating anti-monopoly law". Reuters. 11 March 2021. Archived from the original on 7 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  42. ^ a b Quinn, Jimmy (21 July 2022). "TikTok's Owner Is Spending Millions on D.C. Lobbying". National Review. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  43. ^ Josh, Ye (1 July 2021). "TikTok maker ByteDance finds new success in US with CapCut, a hit video editing app". South China Morning Post.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  44. ^ Choudhury, Saheli Roy (15 September 2020). "The Chinese version of TikTok now has 600 million daily active users". CNBC. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  45. ^ "Forget the Trade War. TikTok Is China's Most Important Export Right Now". BuzzFeed News. 16 May 2019. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  46. ^ Huang, Zheping (9 March 2020). "ByteDance to Launch Google-Like Work Tools During Outbreak". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  47. ^ Xu, Tony (3 April 2019). "Bytedance officially launches productivity tool Lark". TechNode. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  48. ^ Isaac, Mike (9 October 2020). "U.S. Appeals Injunction Against TikTok Ban". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 7 December 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  49. ^ Schwedel, Heather (4 September 2018). "A Guide to TikTok for Anyone Who Isn't a Teen". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on 21 March 2020. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  50. ^ Al-Heeti, Abrar (2 December 2020). "TikTok is reportedly experimenting with 3-minute videos". CNet. Archived from the original on 7 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  51. ^ "Chinese news reading app Toutiao acquires Flipagram". February 2017. Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
  52. ^ "More Chinese will be watching Flipagram videos". USA Today. Archived from the original on 3 August 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  53. ^ Osawa, Juro (19 July 2017). "How a News Startup Caught China's Tencent by Surprise". The Information. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  54. ^ "This Startup Is Luring Top Talent with $3 Million Pay Packages". Bloomberg. 24 September 2017. Archived from the original on 8 March 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  55. ^ Yuan, Li (24 August 2017). "The News Reads You in China—and People Can't Get Enough of It". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  56. ^ Jing, Meng (15 February 2018). "This migrant worker lost his 56-year-old mentally ill sibling during Lunar New Year travel crush. Toutiao helped find him". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  57. ^ "ByteDance to enter long-form streaming video market". South China Morning Post. 15 September 2018. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  58. ^ Saini, Jiya (12 August 2019). "Toutiao Search is online now, a search engine from ByteDance". Revyuh. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  59. ^ Frater, Patrick (23 April 2020). "BBC Studios Sets Content Deal With China's Xigua Video". Variety. Archived from the original on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  60. ^ "TikTok maker ByteDance refocuses on education apps back home in China amid trouble overseas". KrASIA. 14 August 2020. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  61. ^ "ByteDance to close some tutoring ops after clampdown - sources". Reuters. 5 August 2021. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  62. ^ "TikTok Owner ByteDance Acquires Moonton and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang". IGN Southeast Asia. 22 March 2021. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  63. ^ Anne, Melissa (22 March 2021). "TikTok owner (ByteDance) is buying Mobile Legends creators (Moonton) for $4 billion". MegPlay. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  64. ^ Team, Dao (14 July 2022). "ByteDance debuts first metaverse-like social app Party Island". Dao Insights. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  65. ^ "Resso, ByteDance's music streaming app, officially launches in India, sans Tencent-backed Universal Music". TechCrunch. 4 March 2020. Archived from the original on 23 August 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  66. ^ Tagat, Anurag (4 March 2020). "TikTok Owner ByteDance Launches Resso App in India, Taking on Spotify". Variety. Archived from the original on 6 April 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  67. ^ a b Baker-White, Emily (26 July 2022). "TikTok Owner ByteDance Distributed Pro-China Messages To Americans, Former Employees Say". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  68. ^ "TikTok owner ByteDance kills news aggregator app TopBuzz". South China Morning Post. 5 June 2020. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  69. ^ Baker-White, Emily (17 June 2022). "Leaked Audio From 80 Internal TikTok Meetings Shows That US User Data Has Been Repeatedly Accessed From China". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  70. ^ Fifield, Anna (28 November 2019). "TikTok's owner is helping China's campaign of repression in Xinjiang, report finds". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 28 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  71. ^ Cockerell, Isobel (24 January 2020). "Xinjiang's TikTok wipes away evidence of Uyghur persecution". Coda Media. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  72. ^ Potkin, Fanny (13 August 2020). "Exclusive: ByteDance censored anti-China content in Indonesia until mid-2020 – sources". Reuters. Archived from the original on 23 August 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  73. ^ Hern, Alex (25 September 2019). "Revealed: how TikTok censors videos that do not please Beijing". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  74. ^ a b "Jokes app Neihan Duanzi shuttered by China's media regulator for 'vulgarity'". SupChina. 12 April 2018. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  75. ^ Spence, Philip (16 January 2019). "ByteDance Can't Outrun Beijing's Shadow". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 16 January 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  76. ^ Romm, Tony; Harwell, Drew (5 December 2019). "TikTok leader schedules Washington trip to meet with lawmakers as investigations loom". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 6 December 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  77. ^ Pham, Sherisse (2 November 2018). "Why China's tech giants are cozying up to the Communist Party". CNN. Archived from the original on 11 May 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  78. ^ Fan, Jiayang (19 April 2018). "Why China Cracked Down on the Social-media Giant Bytedance". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 25 November 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  79. ^ Bandurski, David (2 May 2018). "Tech Firms Tilt Toward the Party". China Media Project. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  80. ^ "China orders ByteDance to fix 'slanderous' smear of CCP martyr". The Nikkei. Reuters. 12 November 2019. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  81. ^ Huang, Zheping (24 April 2020). "China Orders TikTok Owner ByteDance to Remove Work-From-Home App". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2020. {{cite news}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 24 April 2020 suggested (help)
  82. ^ Zhang, Yunan (January 2021). "TikTok's Owner, ByteDance, Fined in China for Vulgar Content". The Information. Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  83. ^ Qu, Tracy; Feng, Coco; Xin, Zhou (8 January 2021). "TikTok's Chinese version Douyin fined for vulgar content as Beijing continues cyberspace crackdown". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  84. ^ "Giants Tencent, Bytedance among companies reined in by China". BBC News. 30 April 2021. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  85. ^ Wei, Lingling; Yang, Stephanie (29 April 2021). "China Warns Large Tech Firms as Industry Faces Rising Oversight". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  86. ^ "ByteDance, Kuaishou, and Microsoft given 15 days to fix illegal data collection". South China Morning Post. 21 May 2021. Archived from the original on 22 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  87. ^ Ma, Josephine (27 April 2022). "Web users in China told to report posts guilty of 'historical nihilism' against Communist Party line". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 28 April 2022. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  88. ^ Lin, Liza. "China Clamps Down on Internet as It Seeks to Stamp Out Covid Protests". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  89. ^ Singh, Manish (29 June 2020). "India bans TikTok, dozens of other Chinese apps". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  90. ^ Singh, Kanishka (25 January 2021). "India to impose permanent ban on 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok - Indian media". Reuters. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  91. ^ Kalra, Aditya; Roy, Abhirup (30 March 2021). "India blocks bank accounts of China's ByteDance, company mounts challenge". Reuters. Archived from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  92. ^ "Video Social Networking App Musical.ly Agrees to Settle FTC Allegations That it Violated Children's Privacy Law". Federal Trade Commission. 26 February 2019. Archived from the original on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  93. ^ Lieber, Chavie (28 February 2019). "TikTok has been illegally collecting children's data". Vox. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  94. ^ Lee, Dami (27 February 2019). "TikTok stops young users from uploading videos after FTC settlement". The Verge. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  95. ^ a b Brian, Fung (29 June 2022). "FCC commissioner calls on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores". CNN. Archived from the original on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  96. ^ "Two senators call for FTC probe into TikTok over U.S. data access". Reuters. 5 July 2022. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  97. ^ Allyn, Bobby (6 August 2020). "Trump Signs Executive Order That Will Effectively Ban Use Of TikTok In the U.S." NPR. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  98. ^ Nikki Carvajal and Caroline Kelly (7 August 2020). "Trump issues orders banning TikTok and WeChat from operating in 45 days if they are not sold by Chinese parent companies". CNN. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  99. ^ "TikTok threatens legal action against Trump US ban". BBC News. 7 August 2020. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  100. ^ Fischer, Sara (15 August 2020). "Trump tightens screws on ByteDance to sell Tiktok". Axios. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  101. ^ Mozur, Paul; Zhong, Raymond; McCabe, David (29 August 2020). "TikTok Deal Is Complicated by New Rules from China Over Tech Exports". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 29 August 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2020.