Tiktok operator Bytedance quashed on July 5th rumors of selling its artificial-intelligence technology to other companies, as well as speculations about its plan to set up ride-hailing service.

Detail:

On Monday, an unidentified insider stated in Baidu post that Bytedance is selling its Tiktok’s algorithm to other companies, the topic named “When TikTok is treated as a commodity” amassed more than 316,000 views.

Financial times also reported that Bytedance formed a new division called BytePlus that offers companies chances to gain access of TikTok’s artificial intelligence-based algorithm.

“Early customers include Goat, the US-based fashion app; WeGo, a travel booking site in Singapore; and Chilibeli, an Indonesian online shopping start-up. BytePlus has recruited staff in Singapore, as well as London and Hong Kong,” financial times reported.

In an official statement, Bytedance said the rumors are unrealistic, “Byteplus is a SAAS provider, we only offer technological services. We neither provide, nor sell, any technology from TikTok or any other client.”

In a post on Chinese career and social networking platform Maimai, an unidentified Bytedance employee disclosed that Bytedance quietly set up a ride-hailing team that aims to develop a standalone ride hailing app to replace Didi Chuxing.

The rumors just came a day after China’s cyberspace administration launched a probe into Didi for its illegally collection of users’ personal data as well as potential data leakage.

In a separate announcement, a Bytedance spokesman denied the rumors by saying “there is no project focusing on ride-hailing.

Context:

Bytedance booked a total revenue of USD34.3 billion in 2020, up 111% year-on-year. Gross profit rose 93% to USD19 billion.

As of the end of 2020, Bytedance had 1.9 billion monthly active users across all of its platforms including TikTok, and Chinese version Douyin, and news aggregation app TouTiao and others.   

ByteDance has hired Xiaomi’s senior executive Shou Zi Chew as chief finance officer, signaling the Beijing based tech giant is coming a step closer toward initial public offering of some of its businesses.