ByteDance asserts more power within China’s BAT tech grouping as revenue growth beats Tencent, Alibaba: report
- Beijing-based ByteDance, which operates TikTok and its Chinese sibling Douyin, raked in US$29 billion in second-quarter sales, says report
- ByteDance’s surge comes amid a gradual uptick in advertising in China amid an uneven economic recovery after the pandemic
ByteDance supplanted Baidu in China’s top three Big Tech companies – known by the acronym BAT – some time ago and there are signs that it may be pulling further ahead after a report that revenue soared in the second quarter on advertising sales, giving it faster growth than rivals Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding.
Beijing-based ByteDance, which operates TikTok and its Chinese sibling Douyin, raked in US$29 billion of revenue in the second quarter of 2023, a surge of 40 per cent from the same period last year, according to a report last week by The Information that cited anonymous sources.
ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The growth also outpaced Facebook parent Meta Platforms, which similarly draws a majority of its revenue from advertising. ByteDance’s first-half sales hit US$54 billion, closing in on Meta’s US$60.6 billion in the same period, The Information reported.
ByteDance is privately-held so not obliged to publicly reveal its financial information – but if the report is correct, this would mean that its revenue growth outpaced Tencent and Alibaba in the same period, which chalked up 11 per cent and 14 per cent growth respectively. ByteDance even surpassed internet giant Tencent in terms of total sales, but not e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post.