TikTok's owner becomes the most valuable social network and launches a share buyback.

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is preparing for a new share buyback program for its employees, which will raise its valuation above $330 billion.

Share Price

Under the program, ByteDance will offer $200.41 per share, which is 5.5% higher than the previous round six months ago, when the company repurchased shares at $189.90. At that time, ByteDance’s market value was around $315 billion. The new buyback is set to begin in the fall.

Rising Revenues

The increase in valuation comes alongside record-breaking revenue growth. In the second quarter alone, the company earned approximately $48 billion, a 25% increase year-over-year.
Most of these revenues come from the Chinese market. For comparison, in the first quarter ByteDance generated $43 billion, surpassing Meta, which reported $42.3 billion in the same period.

ByteDance conducts share buybacks twice a year, allowing employees to sell part of their holdings in the private company. Unlike many other late-stage startups such as SpaceX or OpenAI, ByteDance funds these buybacks directly from its own balance sheet, highlighting the company’s strong profitability.

Beyond Social Media

In addition to dominating the social media landscape, ByteDance is heavily investing in artificial intelligence, spending billions of dollars on Nvidia chips, infrastructure, and developing its own AI models.

However, the company faces ongoing political pressure in the United States, where lawmakers continue to call for the separation of TikTok’s American business from its Chinese ownership.