Who Owns the Media: TikTok (ByteDance)

TikTok (ByteDance) 

Capitulation Rank: TBD
Category: Online Platforms & Streaming 
Market Cap: Approximately $400 billion

As of this writing, TikTok is owned by ByteDance Ltd., a Chinese technology company that Zhang Yiming founded in 2012. The platform’s ownership could change dramatically:  A 2024 U.S. law — the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — would force TikTok’s Chinese owner to divest its holdings of the popular social-media site or face an effective national ban of its app.

President Trump has repeatedly delayed the implementation of this law, seeking time to structure a takeover of the company’s ownership by American interests. Trump would prefer to see the platform fall under the control of billionaires like Marc Andreessen and Larry Ellison, who are politically aligned with the president. Others who are less closely tied to Trump, like billionaire businessman Frank McCourt and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, have also expressed interest in purchasing the video network.

Trump’s delays make it impossible to assign a capitulation rating to the widely used platform, which boasts approximately 1.6 billion monthly-active users. Free Press Action has opposed the ban, saying: “A sell-or-be-banned law targeting one platform runs afoul of the First Amendment and unilaterally closes off essential spaces for people to connect and communicate.”

What It Owns:

ByteDance owns a variety of popular digital platforms and apps across different markets. While TikTok is its most notable property, ByteDance also owns Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, tailored specifically for the Chinese market. Other significant properties include social-media network Helo (targeting Indian users), work-management platform Lark/Feishu (similar to Slack), music-streaming service Resso, Chinese news-and-information content aggregator Toutiao, and longer-form streaming platform Xigua Video.