TikTok owner ByteDance says it has no immediate plans to go public
- TikTok owner ByteDance says it has no immediate listing plans, scotching media speculation
- Source says delay comes as ByteDance faces challenges restructuring to meet US and China regulations
Beijing-based ByteDance, owner of the globally-successful TikTok app and its Chinese version Douyin, said in a statement on Friday that it is not ready to file for an initial public offering, at least for the time being.
“There has been recent media speculation about our IPO plans. We would like to clarify that we are not ready at this stage and do not have IPO plans yet,” the Beijing-based company said in brief statement late on Friday, without elaborating.
A person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified as the information is not public, told the Post that ByteDance – whose valuation has approached US$400 billion in the private market – has shelved its IPO plan partly because it is proving difficult to restructure its business to meet regulatory requirements in both China and the US.
The status of TikTok in the US remains uncertain after ByteDance shelved a deal to sell the video-sharing app’s US operations to a group led by Oracle following earlier pressure from former US President Donald Trump to find a buyer, as reported by the Post in February.
Although not banned in the US – as Trump had threatened – the app’s future there is still clouded by regulatory uncertainty as the new Biden administration takes another look at potential security concerns raised by Chinese apps operating on US soil.