ByteDance, the company behind TikTok’s viral video sensation, is one of the few Chinese tech giants that have managed to secure vast app users on a global scale. At just ten years old, the short video pioneer has reached a market capitalization of 353 billion U.S. dollars, rising to
after Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tencent. TikTok’s meteoric rise is closely tied to its strong data-driven culture, which focuses on user data in making organizational decisions. This has enabled the company to churn out one megahit product after another.
Toutiao: personalized content aggregation and distribution
The story began in 2012 when ByteDance was founded by
Zhang Yiming in Beijing with a vision to provide search alternatives powered by big data and artificial intelligence (AI).
Toutiao is the company’s first product to use smart AI algorithms to curate customized content for its users. Based on the users’ browsing history, likes, and favorites, the app automatically pushes content with relevant interest tags. It did not take long for Toutiao to take off in China. To date, the content discovery app has become
one of the go-to news sources, with over 300 million monthly active users.
Douyin: integrating social elements into news feeds and ads
Soon after Toutiao’s success, ByteDance scoped out another digital opportunity – short video formats. After testing it out on Toutiao Video (later rebranded into Xigua Video), the company launched Douyin in 2016 as a creative short music video product targeting young people in urban China. What made Douyin different from
other short video apps back then were its convenient swiping interface, engaging social sharing features, and powerful editing and
live streaming capabilities. Another crucial aspect was the algorithm model built by ByteDance, which quickly matches trending content and ads to users’ preferences while adjusting the product based on user behavior. In less than three years,
Douyin’s daily active users surpassed 250 million. The short video app would soon become the prototype of TikTok, which has taken the world by storm.
TikTok: re-defining social media with user engagement
In 2017, TikTok was launched as a western analog of Douyin in more than 150 countries and regions. After a year, ByteDance made a game-changing move to merge Musical.ly, a popular lip-sync video app in the United States and Europe, into TikTok. On top of TikTok's robust recommendation mechanism, the large teenage user base of Musical.ly laid a solid foundation for
TikTok’s internationalization. Another key factor was TikTok’s re-engagement strategy with exciting activity formats like duets, reactions, and challenges. Through various affiliate programs and marketing campaigns based on local trends and hot topics, TikTok soon climbed to
the top of the global social media ladder. The future of ByteDance
But all these previous feats do not guarantee an endless rise. Amid geographical tensions between China and many countries worldwide, TikTok has been blocked in India since 2020, and the United States is also considering banning the app due to national security concerns. Internally, ByteDance has seen stagnated revenue growth as advertisers cut marketing budgets worldwide. In 2022, the company carried out a global restructuring of its business, laying off hundreds of employees in different offices. In the hopes of bringing in new revenue streams, ByteDance has moved towards social commerce, virtual reality, and other business directions, but the effects are remained to be seen.
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