ByteDance Sets Up Douyin Group, Rumored to be Listed in Hong Kong

Once ByteDance established Douyin Group (HK) Limited as a separate entity, rumors began to swirl about a potential public listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Regarding the possible listing, a spokesman for Douyin responded to domestic media that the company “refused to comment.”

On Sunday, the Companies Registry (Hong Kong) website showed that Bytedance (HK) Limited has changed its name to Douyin Group (HK) Limited, which took effect on May 6, 2022.

In addition, several other companies under ByteDance have also changed their names to “Douyin”. According to Tianyancha, a Chinese commercial inquiry platform, ByteDance Ltd. was renamed Douyin Ltd. According to China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, Beijing ByteDance Technology Co., Ltd. was recently renamed to Beijing Douyin Information Service Co., Ltd..

These moves are believed to be part of a wider effort to independelty list its domestic businesses including Douyin in Hong Kong as Douyin Group.

Earlier on April 25 this year, ByteDance appointed Julie Gao from international law firm Skadden as its new chief financial officer (CFO). According to the news release, Gao has provided legal services for the listing of more than 100 companies and other capital market financing projects, including Meituan, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Xiaomi. The introduction of Gao as CFO is considered as a signal for ByteDance to restart its listing process.

SEE ALSO: ByteDance Appoints Lawyer Julie Gao as New Chief Financial Officer

Douyin is ByteDance’s most well known product, and its global version is TikTok. To date, the number of daily active users on Douyin has exceeded 600 million.

In November last year, Liang Rubo, CEO of ByteDance, announced the establishment of six business units, namely Douyin, Dali Education, Feishu (Lark), Volcengine, Nuverse and TikTok. The Douyin business unit is responsible for the overall development of the company’s domestic information and service business, including Douyin, Toutiao, Xigua Video, search, encyclopedia and other vertical businesses. Among them, Douyin and Toutiao, the two core products, contributed most of ByteDance’s revenue in China.