ByteDance Restructures TikTok’s U.S. Ownership

ByteDance is a global technology giant dedicated to building platforms that explore the intersection of content and commerce, most notably through its flagship app, TikTok. Its infrastructure supports a massive digital ecosystem—ranging from short-form video to e-commerce—used by over 170 million Americans and millions of small businesses to reach global audiences and drive economic growth.

ByteDance has finalized binding agreements to transition its US business into a newly formed entity, a solution designed to resolve long-standing national security concerns. The restructuring enables ByteDance to maintain a 19.9% minority stake in the US business while transferring majority control to a consortium of global investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, who will collectively oversee the platform's data and security protocols.

ByteDance, headquartered in Beijing, Beijing, China, was founded in 2012 by Rubo Liang and Yiming Zhang. In 2017, the company joined the unicorn club. Under the terms of the deal, set to close on 22 January, ByteDance will license its proprietary recommendation algorithm to the US venture, where it will be retrained on domestic data within a secure Oracle-managed environment. This shift allows ByteDance to preserve TikTok’s presence in its largest market while ensuring the platform operates under a majority-American board of directors to prevent external manipulation.