ByteDance‘s latest stock buyback program is offering a rare look into the Chinese corporation’s financials. According to Reuters, the parent company of TikTok is claiming a $330 billion valuation as it makes a tempting offer to its current employees.
Through the buyback program, which is expected to begin in the fall, ByteDance will offer its workers $200.41 per share. The massive valuation attached to that offer places ByteDance among the most lucrative tech companies in the world. Reported first-quarter earnings of $43 billion put TikTok’s parent just ahead of Meta, which raked in $42.3 billion of revenue over the same period.
Though Americans may associate ByteDance with TikTok’s innovations in the social video industry, its 12-figure valuation is largely powered by ecommerce. Shopping on TikTok and its sister app Douyin — particularly in regions like Southeast Asia — helped ByteDance turn a $25 billion profit in 2023. A year later, ByteDance Co-Founder Zhang Yiming became the richest billionaire in China (though that title is more complex than it may seem at first glance).
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ByteDance’s eye-popping numbers explain the company’s emphasis on TikTok Shop, which has become a global ecommerce juggernaut through a mix of price cuts, small business credits, vendor buy-ins, and other incentives. TikTok Shop has leveled up so quickly that a potential U.S. TikTok ban would likely hurt business owners more than ByteDance. U.S.-based sellers would lose access to a potent revenue stream, whereas ByteDance would be able to refocus ecommerce efforts in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.
It’s also reasonable to suggest that the value of ByteDance’s ecommerce empire is inflated; the company’s critics could point to multiple rounds of layoffs that have recently affected global TikTok Shop teams. The details of the stock buyback program, however, suggest that ByteDance is still growing even as it encounters widespread regulatory hurdles. Compared to the figure attached to a buyback program that launched six months ago, ByteDance’s stated valuation is now $15 billion higher. And revenue is up too, going from $43 billion in Q1 to about $48 billion in Q2.
Therefore, any rumors of ByteDance’s decline would seem to be unfounded. And on our side of the Pacific, Donald Trump may be overstating his ability to shape a TikTok deal. China holds all the cards and a large chunk of tech wealth, so don’t expect ByteDance to be strongarmed into a one-sided agreement.
