ByteDance Wants To Westernize And Become The Next Facebook

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has revealed new goals to compete with Meta (formerly known as Facebook).   

In an email to staffers from early November, the company revealed changes in structure that are brand new to the company.  

ByteDance has been known for its flat hierarchy where any employee has been able to direct message founder Zhang Yiming on Lark, the company’s version of Slack. However, the firm is creating a more formal structure with six new units being established. 

The company will now have formal components including: an online learning branch, Lark, game development unit Nuverse, and a business-to-business enterprise arm called BytePlus. 

Employees are questioning why the company is restructuring now and what to expect. 

While there has been no concrete explanation thus far, it can be assumed that ByteDance is looking to expand beyond its video sharing services, establish itself as a more westernized company, and create an organization similar to Facebook. 

TikTok became the first non-Facebook app to surpass 3 billion downloads globally, but it’s only one portion of ByteDance’s business. 

“ByteDance’s overseas layout is not only limited to the short video industry, but also includes some upstream news and music platforms,” said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of digital marketing agencies Alarice and ChoZan. “ByteDance has great ambitions for the overseas markets, and its competition with Facebook has become more apparent.”