Update | China’s ByteDance expects to earn half of its revenue from overseas in five years
Operator of news aggregator Toutiao has been acquiring video content apps including Musical.ly
Beijing ByteDance Technology, the Chinese news aggregator that recently acquired a lip-synching video app popular with American teens, said it expects overseas markets to contribute half of its revenue in five years as it expands services to more countries.
Best known in China for its mobile news app, Jinri Toutiao, or Today’s Headline, which has 120 million daily active users, ByteDance is going through an overseas buying spree that recently bagged the popular teen app Musical.ly, to create a global user base to deliver its content.
The Beijing-based company currently earns most of its revenue from China, and is targeting annual revenue of 50 billion yuan (US$7.56 billion) next year, Liu Zhen, senior vice-president of ByteDance, told reporters on Friday.
“The fundamental reason we want to go global is to connect more information with more people and efficiently distribute information with the power of artificial intelligence,” said Liu, who is in charge of global strategy for Bytedance.
The Beijing-headquartered company has reached 200 million daily active users globally by extending its personalised news and video services into Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea and by acquiring established content products in mature markets such as North America and Europe.