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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
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Table of Contents
I. Structure 7
II. People 16
III. Products 26
IV. Recommendation 31
V. Monetization 41
Opinions, predictions, and interpretations expressed in this report are those exclusively of the author and do
Disclaimer and Methodology not reflect those of ByteDance, TikTok or any of its affiliate companies. This report is not sponsored or
supported by any organization. All source material is drawn from the book Attention Factory.
Structure
Image: the large central "fishbowl" glass meeting room at ByteDance’s
Beijing head offices, former aviation museum AVIC Plaza.
Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
8 Source: GeekPark
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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
Beijing
Head Offices
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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
BYTEDANCE IS registered
offshore under a Cayman
Islands entity. This approach is
similar to other large Chinese
internet companies such as
Alibaba Group Holding Limited
and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
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Investors
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People
A peek inside at some of the most important people at ByteDance
Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
“
mannered, calm exterior have fooled many. Make
no mistake, the 37-year-old mastermind behind
ByteDance is a battle-hardened serial By many quantitative
entrepreneur, determined, focused and willing to metrics, Zhang Yiming is
make bold bets. the top entrepreneur in
the world.
Computer science graduate Zhang, is known as a
”
voracious reader and consumer of information
who personally led research and development of
the first version of ByteDance’s now famous
recommendation engine. Increasingly his focus Time Magazine, 2019
has shifted towards optimizing company structure
and organizational information flows.
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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
”
company had yet to generate any revenue. He
fast tracked the company’s monetization drive
using many of the tried and tested sales
techniques and key-account connections from his Lin Chufang
years in the newspaper advertising industry Former Vice President of
A sizable chunk of ByteDance’s entire workforce Public Relations, Toutiao
consists of salespeople and staff focused on (Bytedance)
commercialization overseen by Lidong.
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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
张楠
The Product Queen
Kelly Zhang
Kelly has built a reputation for Zhang was also nominally head of
deeply understanding how to TikTok during 2019. She is now
cultivate online communities, an exclusively focused on China.
essential process for user generated
content platforms.
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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
WHO MADE TIKTOK so damn In 2017 it was Zhu’s team that led a
addictive? If we must ascribe this major upgrade of Douyin’s backend
achievement to one person, then it’s infrastructure that led to astounding
probably Zhu Wenjia. results. Shortly afterwards user
numbers and engagement spiked to
There are many extremely talented previously unseen levels. This same
algorithm engineers at Bytedance, backend system is used by TikTok.
yet Zhu Wenjia is widely considered
to be one of the very best in the Zhu was hired from search giant
entire company. Baidu in 2015. He is currently CEO
of Toutiao, the company’s original
flagship news aggregation app.
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`
梁汝波
EMPLOYEE NUMBER 3, Liang is
The College Buddy
Liang Rubo
In his time at Bytedance Liang has
Zhang Yiming’s close friend and held various senior technical roles,
trusted advisor. The two were including Director of Technology.
university dorm roommates for More recently he has shifted to focus
several years studying computer to HR.
science at Nankai university in the
Northern coastal Chinese city of Liang, known for his infectious smile
Tianjin. and positive energy, is often listed as
a “founder” of Douyin, the original
Before joining ByteDance, Liang version of TikTok.
worked at CEO Zhang Yiming’s
previous internet startup, real estate Douyin was set up under a subsidiary
search portal 99Fang.com. company, “Beijing Weibo Vision
Technology,” which was registered
under Liang’s name.
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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
朱骏 阳陆育
The Pioneers
Alex Zhu & Louis Yang
ALEX & LOUIS pioneered the 15 After Musical.ly’s acquisition. Louis
second full screen vertical short and Alex continued to work for
video app experience that we now ByteDance. Louis currently focuses
know as TikTok. The two co- on innovative educational AI
founded Musical.ly, an app products in Shanghai.
extremely popular with European
and American teenagers. Alex went on to lead TikTok before
becoming VP of Product and
Bytedance first cloned their app and Strategy in May after the hire of
later acquired their company, Disney executive, Kevin Mayer.
eventually merging Musical.ly
together with TikTok.
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王琼 The Investor
Joan Wang
THE MOST IMPORTANT investor in SIG’s investment into ByteDance
ByteDance’s company history is Joan holds legendary status in China’s
Wang. venture capital world. Especially
given ByteDance had much difficulty
Joan works as managing director for securing early investments. Many of
SIG China a venture investment arm China’s most prominent VCs turned
of the American financial services them down missing the opportunity
firm Susquehanna International to make a career defining deal.
Group (SIG).
Joan believed in founder Yiming at a
She came to know Zhang Yiming time when few fancied their chances.
through backing two of his previous In 2013 SIG owned roughly 12% of
startups, travel search site, Kuxun, ByteDance and are reported to have
and real estate portal, 99Fang.com. remained the largest institutional
investor.
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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
THERE ARE FEW companies, even in tech, compensation and generous share options to Picture left: Estimates of ByteDance staff head
which are growing as fast as ByteDance. secure top candidates. Offices in Mountain count in comparison with other industry
Within China the company has built a View, California and Shenzhen, China, have peers.
fearsome reputation for aggressively been set up within close proximity of wary Picture right: The entire ByteDance company
poaching talent from other internet rivals Facebook and Tencent respectively. in 2014.
25
companies, offering above market
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Products
Image: just some of ByteDance’s many apps
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Recommendation
Image: Musical.ly co-founder Louis Yang’s conceptualization of short video content distribution methods
Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
Fragmented Time
2005
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METHODS OF informational
distribution have evolved over the
internet’s 30-year history. From
the curated web portals (AOL,
Yahoo!) of the 90s through to
search engines, RSS, and email
subscription lists, social networks
and most recently
recommendation engines.
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Understanding TikTok & ByteDance
Illustrations
Valentina Segovia
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