TikTok owner ByteDance's revenue growth slowed to 70% in 2021: sources

[BEIJING/HONG KONG] ByteDance, the owner of short video app TikTok, saw its total revenue grow by 70 per cent year-on-year to around US$58 billion in 2021, according to 2 people familiar with the matter, slower growth than a year earlier as China tightens its grip on big tech companies.

The figures were disclosed to a small group of employees at an internal meeting this week, according to the people.

In 2020, the Beijing-based company's total revenue grew by over 100 per cent to US$34.3 billion, Reuters has reported.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chinese tech giants from Tencent to Alibaba have reported slowing growth amid a wide-ranging crackdown by the country's regulators who have rolled out new rules that have impacted how such companies carry out deals and interact with their users.

The social media giant retained its 2nd-ranked position in China's online advertising market last year, with a market share of 21 per cent, according to a recent report published by researcher Interactive Marketing Lab Zhongguancun.

The number one position was still held by e-commerce giant Alibaba group, and the 3rd place went to gaming giant Tencent Holdings, according to the report.

The overall growth of online ad sales in China declined to 9.3 per cent in 2021 from 13.8 per cent a year earlier, the report says.

Tech news website The Information last November reported that ByteDance's 2021 revenue was on track to rise about 60 per cent to 400 billion yuan (US$63.07 billion).

ByteDance is one of the world's biggest private tech companies with recent trades in the private-equity secondary market valuing it at about US$300 billion, Reuters has reported.

A breakdown of TikTok's total revenue last year wasn't available. Besides TikTok, ByteDance's other apps include its Chinese equivalent Douyin, news aggregator Jinri Toutiao and video-streaming platform Xigua.

In 2021, users spent approximately US$2.3 billion last year in TikTok and the iOS version of its Chinese version Douyin, a 77 per cent jump year-over-year, according to app tracker Sensor Tower.

REUTERS