TikTok, which is on the verge of being kicked out of the U.S., reportedly posted $120 billion in global sales last year. Analysts say that it beat sales of Facebook and Instagram under Meta.
According to the Financial Times (FT) on the 15th (local time), TikTok posted $16 billion in sales in the U.S. alone last year, achieving $120 billion in sales worldwide. Sales growth is estimated to have reached about 40% year-on-year. Although TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance in China, does not disclose financial data as it is an unlisted company, related information has been leaked by the “TikTok Prohibition Act,” which recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and others, saw its sales rise 16% from the previous year to $135 billion last year. Considering that Meta’s social media is divided into Facebook and Instagram, TikTok’s growth has overwhelmed them with a single sales, FT said. The FT analyzed, “The total value of TikTok, which is an unlisted company, can be valued at up to $150 billion if a multiple similar to Meta is applied to such sales.” The market believes that TikTok has recently been valued at around $200 billion, with some of its shares traded in the form of block deals.
In the U.S., a bill banning TikTok passed the House of Representatives the day before. If ByteDance does not sell TikTok within 180 days, it will remove TikTok from the app store. This means that in order to prevent the use of TikTok in the U.S. from being virtually banned in the future, ByteDance will have to sell TikTok separately. In a related development, Steven Mnuchin, who served as finance minister during the Donald Trump administration, has formed a financial investor consortium to take over TikTok.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
