ByteDance Ltd.

ByteDance Ltd. was founded in March 2012 by Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo in Beijing, China, where it remains headquartered in the Haidian district. Liang Rubo assumed the CEO role in 2021 after co-founder Zhang Yiming stepped down, and the company maintains offices in nearly 120 cities across more than 30 countries.

The company operates a portfolio of content and technology platforms, including TikTok and Douyin (short-form video), CapCut (video editing), Toutiao (news aggregation), Lark and Feishu (enterprise collaboration), Doubao (AI chatbot), and Lemon8 (social content sharing). Its platforms collectively serve more than 2.5 billion users across more than 150 countries.

ByteDance is privately held and backed by Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Group, KKR & Co., General Atlantic, and Hillhouse Capital Group. As of November 2024, the company was valued at approximately $300 billion. ByteDance employs approximately 120,000 people globally.