billion last year, report says" src="https://cdn.cntechpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/b9f6861c57bdbd89d71d3669a602e356.jpeg" />
TikTok Owner ByteDance had revenue of more than $17 billion and net profit of more than $3 billion last year, according to Bloomberg.
The data shows that ByteDance has become the most valuable startup in the world and is growing at a rapid pace.
ByteDance's $17 billion in revenue last year was more than double its total revenue for 2018 (about $7.4 billion).
ByteDance currently attracts about 1.5 billion monthly active users across a range of apps, including the TikTok short video platform, Jitter and news service app Toutiao.
This month, ByteDance also scooped up Kevin Mayer of Walt Disney as CEO of TikTok.
Bloomberg previously reported that ByteDance, led by Zhang Yiming, is becoming a strong competitor to US internet giants Facebook and Alphabet.
Facebook-owned Instagram brought in about $20 billion in advertising revenue in 2019. Google's video division, for its part, claims YouTube's ad sales were $15.1 billion last year.
ByteDance is strengthening its presence in emerging areas such as e-commerce and gaming. This year, ByteDance kicked off a wave of hiring that is expected to add 40,000 jobs by 2020.
ByteDance hopes to equal e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding in terms of number of employees. And the big context right now is that major tech companies around the world are laying off staff.
ByteDance had very preliminary discussions about an initial public offering (IPO) last year, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter. But given ByteDance's financial performance, the business isn't in a hurry to go public. Sources close to the matter also revealed that ByteDance currently has over $6 billion in cash on hand.
ByteDance, which is held by SoftBank Group, General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, has become the world's most valuable startup, research firm CB Insights said.
Bloomberg News previously reported that a number of recent private placements have valued the Chinese company in the secondary market at between $105 billion and $110 billion. For its part, ByteDance's deal is also $140 billion in size, making it one of the highest-valued private companies ever, a person familiar with the matter said.
