Short video app TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has quietly made a series of moves in recent months to transfer global decision-making and research capabilities out of its home country China, Reuters reported citing sources.
The strategy is aimed not only at TikTok, which is not available in China, but all of ByteDance’s non-China focused businesses, the sources said. Such businesses also include units in India like social networking app Helo.
TikTok’s poaching of Disney’s Kevin Mayer to be its CEO was just the most visible part of a broader strategy by ByteDance to shift its centre of power away from China at a time of rising global tensions, several people familiar with the plans said.
ByteDance has expanded TikTok’s engineering and research and development operations in Mountain View, California, according to three sources. One of the people said it had hired more than 150 engineers there.
ByteDance has also hired a New York-based investor relations director to stay in touch with major investors including General Atlantic and KKR, relationships that were previously managed through Beijing, Reuters said citing two sources.
The new hire, Michelle Huang, is a former SoftBank investor who worked on the Japanese firm’s investment in ByteDance, the report said.
By the end of April, TikTok has surpassed 2 billion downloads for both iOS and Android, the latest data from TensorTower shows.
The milestone was reached just five months after the app hit 1.5 billion downloads.
Like other streaming and social networking apps, TikTok saw a new surge in downloads and users during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first quarter of 2020, the app set a new quarterly record with 315 million downloads.
The 2 billion downloads include both iOS and Android platforms, with the former continuing to contribute more revenue. According to Sensor Tower, users on iOS contributed $435.3 million in revenue to TikTok, while Android users contributed $21.4 million.
