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TikTok owner ByteDance has no plans to go public, company CFO tells employees

  • ByteDance, the world’s most valuable unicorn, has no plans to go public, its chief financial officer told employees in an internal meeting
  • The Chinese tech firm’s new share option programme sets the grant price at US$155 per share, a 20 per cent discount to last year’s plan

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ByteDance’s chief financial officer told employees that the company has no plan to go public. Photo: Shutterstock
Coco Feng
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, the world’s most valuable unicorn, has no plans to go public, its chief financial officer told employees in an internal staff meeting on Wednesday.
Julie Gao, who joined the Chinese giant in April from international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, made the announcement in an online meeting together with ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and several other executives, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Liang also said that many of the firm’s businesses failed to meet expectations and the company planned to reduce input into noncore businesses, according to a report by Chinese tech media outlet LatePost, which first confirmed the news.

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How China’s TikTok video app became a global sensation

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Beijing-based ByteDance, founded by entrepreneur Zhang Yiming a decade ago, is the largest Chinese consumer tech firm to remain private. Its shareholding employees are in line for a windfall should the company go public.

The unicorn – which is backed by venture capitalists Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic and Hillhouse Capital Group – also denied in a statement in April 2021 that it had any immediate plans for an initial public offering.

ByteDance told employees in an email on Wednesday the firm would be offering stock options at US$155 per share, according to a report by Chinese media outlet The Paper. The price is about 20 per cent lower than the US$195 offered last year.

The company is also reportedly preparing to offer unvested options priced at over US$155 per share to about 30,000 of its 110,000 employees.

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