The world’s most valuable startup is no longer Uber.
Chinese company Bytedance, known for its immensely popular social media platform TikTok, has taken the lead after earning $3 billion worth in investments from SoftBank Group Corp. and other investors, Bloomberg reports.
Under the new deal, Bytedance is valued at $75 billion, giving the company a slight lead compared to Uber’s $72 billion valuation. White Bytedance has not made a profit in 2018, it’s repeatedly scored funding in the past, and the company “remains in talks with other interested investors” that could “offer more funds in [the] future,” Bloomberg reports. KKR & Co. and General Atlantic both invested in Bytedance alongside SoftBank during the recent deal, with the latter aiming to invest in primary stock.
TikTok remains one of the most popular Chinese apps in the U.S. to date, with the app regularly ranking among the top 50 downloaded apps on the iOS App Store in the U.S., according to Sensor Tower. Launched in 2016, TikTok lets users create short videos or lip-sync themselves to songs, not unlike Vine. (It absorbed U.S. competitor Musical.ly last year.) TikTok acquired the latter for $1 billion in November 2017, and Musical.ly users accounts were transferred over to the service.
During Q1 and Q2 2018, TikTok was downloaded over 104 million times on the App Store, making it the most downloaded iOS app on the store, according to CNBC. Meanwhile, Facebook is working on its own TikTok competitor called “Lasso,” which would let users sync themselves to music and record short clips.
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H/T The Verge
