ByteDance

ByteDance details dozens of internal misconduct cases from bribery and data leaks to using company funds for personal expenses

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ByteDance, owner of hit short-video app TikTok and its Chinese sibling Douyin, has internally disclosed 61 misconduct cases involving employees who were fired or charged by authorities for accepting bribes, leaking data and claiming expenses inappropriately, among other wrongdoings. Four employees were detained or released on bail, including former Douyin worker Lu Yang, who accepted … Read more

Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan to debut in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh as international expansion quickens

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The company’s foray into Riyadh will pit Meituan against local rivals including Jahez International Co, Delivery Hero’s Talabat and HungerStation and Uber Technologies-backed Careem. The move comes as Saudi Arabia, already the region’s biggest economy, devises plans to invest trillions of dollars to become a tourism and commercial hub. The skyline of Riyadh, the capital … Read more

TikTok owner ByteDance earns praise from Chinese social media for rejecting US sell-or-ban ultimatum

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Beijing-based ByteDance late on Thursday rejected a report by US digital publication The Information, which said that it was “exploring scenarios” to sell a majority stake in TikTok’s US operations to firms outside the technology industry and without the algorithm that powers the platform. In a statement posted on its Jinri Toutiao news platform, ByteDance … Read more

Chinese Students Are Attending ‘TikTok School’ To Learn How To Sell Clothes Abroad

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At an e-commerce school, Chinese students practice selling clothes to overseas TikTok users. To understand their target audience, they record themselves on camera wearing hijabs and abaya gowns over casual clothing. It’s the final day of a two-week course on selling products abroad via the short video app TikTok. Despite being blocked in China, this … Read more

TikTok ban: ByteDance would rather shut app down than sell, insiders say

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A shutdown would have limited impact on ByteDance’s business while the company would not have to give up its core algorithm, said the sources, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media. ByteDance declined to comment. It said late on Thursday in a statement posted on Toutiao, a … Read more

US sell-or-ban law against TikTok stirs unease in China as Beijing, social media giant ByteDance stay mum on next moves

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An article published by the Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party’s Beijing Municipal Committee, said the measure against TikTok is tantamount to a “robbery” that would “completely destroy American national credibility, which is already flawed”. United States President Joe Biden speaks after signing into law the foreign aid bill and a … Read more

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew expects to defeat US ban threat: ‘We aren’t going anywhere’

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In 2020, Trump was blocked by the courts in his bid to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat, a unit of Tencent, in the United States. 02:15 Singaporeans fume over US lawmaker grilling of TikTok CEO Singaporeans fume over US lawmaker grilling of TikTok CEO Chew added: “Make no mistake – this is a ban on … Read more

Kuaishou’s top e-commerce influencer accuses platform of unfair treatment in rare public spat

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The top influencer on Kuaishou Technology, China’s No 2 short video platform, has complained about being unfairly treated in a rare open spat between a live streaming star and a major internet platform. Xin Youzhi, widely known as Xinba, or The Lion King’s Simba in English, has stopped updating his social media since Saturday, when … Read more

Trump says Biden would be ‘responsible’ for any TikTok ban, says it’s to make president’s ‘friends at Facebook’ richer

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday that US President Joe Biden was “pushing” for a ban on TikTok and would be the one responsible if a ban were imposed, urging voters to take notice. The US House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation on a 360-58 vote on Saturday that would give TikTok’s Chinese … Read more

TikTok Ban in US Pushed: ByteDance Ordered to Sell within a Year

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On Saturday, Congress advanced efforts to ban the widely-used video-sharing platform TikTok. The House made a second attempt to pass legislation aimed at tackling what lawmakers argue poses a national security risk. In a decisive 360-58 vote, the House of Representatives approved a bill containing a provision that would compel ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, … Read more