ByteDance raked in a record underlying profit last year, overtaking China’s long-reigning tech giants Tencent and Alibaba for the first time even as losses mounted for its fast-growing TikTok business unit, reports the Financial Times. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, ByteDance’s preferred metric for profitability, surged 79% to about $25 billion in 2022, according to two investors briefed on the numbers. That was up from about $14 billion the year earlier.
ByteDance’s profit came on the back of almost $85 billion in sales in 2022, up more than 30% from a year earlier, as advertisers increased spending on the fast-growing TikTok viral video platform and its sister Chinese app Douyin.
This rise has helped ByteDance, which was valued at $300 billion last year, surpass China’s listed tech giants, Tencent and ecommerce group Alibaba, which reported ebitda of $23.9 billion and $22.5 billion for 2022, respectively. Both groups have been hit hard by Beijing’s two-year regulatory crackdown on the country’s tech giants.