Meta Platforms (META) , the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, has long been considered the ‘king' of social media. But perhaps, no longer.
In the second quarter, TikTok parent Bytedance surpassed Meta's quarterly revenue for the first time, rising 25% year-over-year to $48 billion. This narrowly eclipsed the revenue of its U.S. competitor, which brought in $47.5 billion.
In flipping Meta, Bytedance became the largest social media company by revenue. However, despite the cultural importance of TikTok, the bulk of the company's impressive performance is coming from within Mainland China.
There, the company's Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, is doing numbers. It represented the majority of the company's revenue in the latest quarter, thanks to its advertising dominance and other fast-growing segments like live-streaming and ecommerce. Nearly three-quarters of Bytedance's $155 billion in 2024 revenue came from China, per Bloomberg.
Notable in the company's growth story was the rapid pace of its ecommerce operation. Per Tech in Asia, Douyin's ecommerce operation grew 30% YoY in 2024. Overseas, its fast-growing international business (which covers TikTok in other non-China markets) grew 63% year-over-year to $39 billion, even in the face of political challenges
The company's profit was $33 billion, a modest decline from 2023. That made its profit margin ~25.2% in 2024. That put it between Meta's nearly 40% profit margin and Amazon's 10% margins; a happy medium between a social giant and a fast-growing ecommerce name.
Because Bytedance remains a privately-held, privately-traded firm, its financials are collected by analysts, journalists, and private market participants. Estimates about its business are also amalgamated by the aforementioned parties to assemble a greater understanding of the fast-growing Chinese tech giant.
Even in the face of a possible U.S. ban, the company continues to grow and solicit funding from investors. Per Reuters, Bytedance is seeking new funding from private investors at a $330 billion valuation. It's unknown when, if ever, the company will go public.
