ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, plans a new employee share buyback that could peg the Chinese tech firm’s valuation above $330 billion, fueled by steady revenue gains, according to sources familiar with the matter, revealed in an exclusive with Reuters.
Sources told Reuters that ByteDance intends to offer existing employees $200.41 per share in the buyback, up 5.5% from the $189.90 per share it offered six months ago, which had valued the company at around $315 billion.
The buyback is slated for this autumn. Sources further added that the higher-valued repurchase reflects ByteDance’s strengthening position as the world’s top social media company by revenue, with second-quarter earnings rising 25% year-on-year.
The surge pushed ByteDance’s second-quarter revenue to roughly $48 billion, according to two sources, with the bulk coming from China as the company faces ongoing political pressure to separate from its U.S. operations.
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In the first quarter, ByteDance’s revenue climbed past $43 billion, surpassing Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, which reported $42.3 billion, making ByteDance the world’s largest social media company by sales. Both companies sustained over 20% growth in the second quarter, buoyed by strong advertising demand.
ByteDance’s semiannual buybacks give employees at the privately held company a chance to sell some of their shares, highlighting a balance sheet reinforced by growth in both domestic and global markets.
Regular buybacks have become a common strategy for late-stage private firms to offer liquidity and retain talent without requiring an IPO. While many companies, including SpaceX and OpenAI, rely on outside investors to finance such programs, ByteDance has stood out by consistently using its own funds, demonstrating strong financial flexibility and healthy profit margins.
Even though ByteDance has surpassed Meta in revenue this year, its valuation is still under a fifth of Meta’s roughly $1.9 trillion market cap, a gap analyst largely attributes to U.S. political and regulatory risks.
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ByteDance is under growing scrutiny in Washington, D.C., where lawmakers have flagged national security concerns over its Chinese ownership. Last year, Congress passed legislation requiring the company to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban affecting its 170 million American users. President Donald Trump has granted the app several extensions, most recently pushing the divestment deadline to September 17, noting that U.S. buyers are prepared and suggesting the timeline could be delayed further.
Some lawmakers have criticized the postponement, saying the administration is sidestepping legal requirements and overlooking national security risks tied to Chinese ownership of TikTok. While ByteDance as a whole is profitable, sources said TikTok’s U.S. operations have so far run at a loss. If the U.S. sale goes through, the business is expected to be held by a joint venture between an American investor group and ByteDance, which would retain a minority stake.
A few days ago, “TikTok back in India” began trending, capturing widespread attention. Despite being banned in 2020, TikTok remains one of India’s most discussed apps, fueling speculation and anticipation about a potential comeback.
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For a brief moment in 2025, millions in India were able to access TikTok without a VPN, sparking a flurry of memes, WhatsApp forwards, and trending hashtags like “Is TikTok back?” But before users could even start dancing, the Indian government stepped in to remind everyone that TikTok remains banned. “The Government of India has not issued any unblocking order for TikTok in India. Any such statement or news is false and misleading,” stated India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Even TikTok echoed the same stance in confirmation with a media outlet. A TikTok spokesperson told TechCrunch that the ban by the Indian government is still in effect, and the short-video platform remains inaccessible in the country. “We have not restored access to TikTok in India and continue to comply with the Government of India’s directive,” the spokesperson said in emailed statement to TechCrunch.
The sudden, short-lived accessibility of TikTok in India seems to have been caused by a network-level misconfiguration.