Who owns tiktok

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese technology company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. ByteDance acquired Musical.ly, a social media app popular among teenagers, in November 2016 and merged it with TikTok, which was launched in China in September 2016 under the name Douyin.

In 2018, ByteDance acquired Musical.ly's parent company, Musical.ly, Inc., and merged it with TikTok. The combined app was rebranded as TikTok and became a global phenomenon, with over a billion active users worldwide.

ByteDance is a privately held company, and its ownership structure is not publicly disclosed. However, it is known that Zhang Yiming, the company's founder and CEO, owns a significant stake in the company. Other investors, including venture capital firms and private equity firms, also hold stakes in ByteDance.

In 2020, ByteDance raised $3 billion in funding from investors, valuing the company at around $75 billion. This funding round was led by investors such as General Atlantic, Hillhouse Capital, and Sequoia Capital.

It's worth noting that TikTok's ownership structure has been the subject of controversy and scrutiny in recent years, particularly in the United States. In 2020, the Trump administration threatened to ban TikTok in the US due to concerns over national security and data privacy, citing the app's Chinese ownership. However, the ban was ultimately blocked by a US court, and TikTok continues to operate in the US and other countries around the world.