TikTok owner ByteDance has denied claims on Chinese social media that it raked in more advertising revenue last year than all of the country’s television channels combined. The post, published on Wednesday by the online account “Daily Innovation Observation”, based its speculation on a Reuters report in early January that said ByteDance’s 2021 revenue reached US$58 billion, along with the author’s assumption that advertising accounted for 77 per cent of the company’s income. The post concluded that ByteDance may have reaped US$44 billion in advertising money last year, exceeding the 194 billion yuan (US$30 billion) that Chinese television networks made from the same source. Chinese TikTok merchants look for ‘first pot of gold’ in overseas markets The Beijing-based company issued a statement late on Wednesday, rejecting the back-of-the-envelope calculation and calling it “fake news”. It did not respond to a request for further comment on Thursday. ByteDance, a private company, has no obligation to disclose financial information to the public. As the world's most valuable unicorn, however, its balance sheet has attracted constant attraction. The denial comes as ByteDance, along with other Chinese Big Tech companies, has been lying low amid a regulatory storm that wiped trillions of dollars off stock markets and slowed business expansion in the sector. ByteDance’s annual revenue grew 70 per cent last year, down from an increase of 111 per cent in 2020, according to the January Reuters report. Earlier this month, the Chinese firm celebrated its 10th anniversary at a low-key event where founder and former chief executive Zhang Yiming was notably absent. Meanwhile, ByteDance’s initial public offering plans are still up in the air. Since January, the Chinese government has required platform operators that handle the data of more than 1 million users to go through a cybersecurity review if they seek to list overseas. The Post reported in October that the short video giant was likely to postpone its IPO until at least late this year. Despite reports from various media outlets that ByteDance was looking to float its shares, the company reiterated at the time that it had no immediate plan to go public. On Tuesday, Chinese authorities published new guidelines to further regulate profit-making practices in live streaming, which could weigh on ByteDance. Live commerce, where influencers sell goods to viewers in live videos, has become a significant part of the business of TikTok’s domestic sibling Douyin, which has more than 600 million daily active users in China.