Key Takeaways:
- ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, the popular short video app, is attempting to compete with Zukerburg’s Meta Universe.
- The company has begun to implement a variety of changes.
According to a statement released by ByteDance earlier this month, the company has begun to implement a variety of changes, beginning with the establishment of formal structures that will differentiate employee categories based on their departments. After achieving phenomenal success with TikTok, the company restructured in order to gain global recognition in other areas.
While TikTok has established its dominance in the world of short video apps, ByteDance has bigger ambitions, one of which is to dethrone former Facebook and now Meta platforms and claim the throne of Web3. ByteDance intends to build on TikTok’s revenue-generating capabilities while also taking advantage of its success to expand into Western markets with a broader suite of apps and services.
TikTok was the first non-Facebook app to reach 3 billion downloads worldwide, and it is estimated that one in every four British people and one in every three Americans use it on a monthly basis. But it’s only one aspect of ByteDance’s operation, and its hold on us may only be the beginning. Though few realize it, the parent company of the all-conquering short-form video app is a behemoth with its sights set on capturing our attention at work, school, while listening to music, and while playing games.
One could speculate that, like Facebook in the early 2000s, ByteDance is following Facebook’s growth strategy of establishing a foundation with a single core application. Later on, using the revenue and market confidence generated by that one app to expand, similar to what Facebook did when it acquired WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as becoming a single sign-in source for other services.
Ashley Dudarenok, a China marketing expert and founder of digital marketing agencies Alarice and ChoZan told that “ByteDance’s overseas layout is not only limited to the short video industry but also includes some upstream news and music platforms. ByteDance has great ambitions for the overseas markets, and its competition with Facebook has become more apparent”.
One former ByteDance employee, who left the company earlier this year and asked for anonymity because of a non-disclosure agreement said that “TikTok is just one part of ByteDance, and while it has potential, it’s not currently contributing much in terms of revenue”. A ByteDance spokesperson said that the company is “constantly looking to develop new and innovative offerings” that follow the company’s ethos.
Despite backlash from Chinese regulators, TikTok has unquestionably outperformed itself when it comes to success. With the launch of its first-ever NFT series, “TikTok Top Moments,” the viral short video application entered the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market last month. The series received a positive response from the public right away and quickly became a big hit. It’ll be interesting to see what’s next on ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company’s to-do list.
