ByteDance’s valuation has risen at least a third to more than US$100 billion in recent private share transactions, people familiar with the matter said, reflecting expectations the owner of video phenom TikTok will keep pulling in advertisers despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
Stock in the world’s most valuable start-up has changed hands recently at a price that suggests its value has risen more than 33 per cent from about US$75 billion during a major round of funding two years ago, the people said, requesting not to be named because the issue is not public.
Some of those transactions valued the Chinese company at as much as US$140 billion, one person said. The trades are private transactions and may not fully reflect broader investor expectations.
ByteDance has grown into a potent online force in recent years, propelled in part by TikTok, a short video platform that has taken US teenagers by storm. Investors are keen to grab a slice of a company that draws some 1.5 billion monthly active users to a family of apps that includes Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese twin, as well as news service Toutiao.