ByteDance’s hefty profits leave Tencent and Alibaba in the dust

Some American lawmakers want to ban short-video platform TikTok from the US, but does this keep the leadership at parent company ByteDance up at night? If it does, all they need to do is look at their 2022 profit figures to sleep soundly.

As the chart from the Financial Times shows, the Chinese company set a record for profit last year at US$25 billion in EBITDA, up from about US$14 billion the year before.

What’s most striking about the chart, though, are the names of the two companies below ByteDance on the profit scale: Tencent and Alibaba. This underscores just how powerful ByteDance has become.

While TikTok was loss making for the firm, any ban in a major market like the US would put a severe dent in ByteDance’s future profitability. For now, though, the sky seems to be the limit.