TikTok parent ByteDance has emerged in recent years as one of China’s most successful global … [+]
Operating losses at ByteDance, the Beijing-headquartered parent of wildly popular video-sharing site TikTok, more than tripled last year to more than $7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing a financial report shared with employees.
The losses were incurred as one of China’s most successful global businesses spent to continue its growth, the newspaper said. ByteDance reported an operating profit in the first quarter of 2022, “indicating one of the world’s most valuable startups could be turning a corner after years of incurring large losses,” the report said.
ByteDance financials nevertheless have been weighed down by “tens of billions of dollars in unrealized market losses on convertible securities,” the Journal said. The shared financial reports were for 2020 and 2021 as well as the first quarter of 2022, according to the newspaper.
Privately held ByteDance, founded in 2012 and best known in China for its Douyin short-video site, has notably invested in VR startup Pico. (See related post here.) Zhang Yiming, the main founder of ByteDance, is worth an estimated $49 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today. CEO Liang Rubo is worth an estimated $2.3 billion. ByteDance shareholders also include funds associated with Sequoia Capital China, Softbank, Coatue, General Atlantic and Source Code Capital.
Citing a company memo to investors, Reuters reported last month ByteDance will spend up to $3 billion to repurchase shares at a price that values the company at around $300 billion The purchases were mainly aimed at helping some shareholders improve their liquidity, a person with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.
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