Full breakdown of ByteDance

Hey All!

I spent the last while researching ByteDance including speaking to a Chinese lawyer to understand China more properly. Usually the pieces I write are 20-25 minutes but I know those on Reddit enjoy shorter stuff so here's the TLDR: Would love to hear thoughts!

TLDR:

• ByteDance isn’t one or two apps, it’s dozens of different apps that dominate both in mainland China and abroad. It is in every way a media empire the same way that Meta is.
• ByteDance’s revenue growth is one of the fastest in the entire world at the scale they are at. They went from being less than a quarter of Meta’s revenue in 2019 to being almost equal only six years later. This is despite Meta’s 18.5% revenue CAGR over the past five years.
• Operating in China isn’t like operating in the US. Both domestically and internationally, ByteDance has major complications that arise and they constantly have to toe the line between pleasing their own government and not offending international ones. 
• ByteDance’s valuation is affected just as much by external geopolitical factors as it is by the financial ones. It therefore has a current estimated valuation significantly lower than it would if it were operating out of Silicon Valley.
• ByteDance is investing extremely heavily into AI and currently boasts China’s leading chatbot: Doubao.
• Overall, fascinating company and likely undervalued because of the geopolitical reasons. I would stay away for ethical reasons.

Joseph

For those who want to read the full piece, enjoy below! - https://preipomedia.substack.com/p/the-breakdown-bytedance