Recently, foreign media reported that this financial report issued to employees within ByteDance in August disclosed the performance for the full years of 2020 and 2021, as well as the first quarter of 2022. As an unlisted company, ByteDance keeps its financial situation strictly confidential and has never disclosed it publicly.
The report shows that ByteDance's revenue in 2021 will increase by nearly 80% to 61.7 billion US dollars (439.06 billion yuan). But at the same time, the company's expenses have also risen sharply in the same period, and the net loss in 2021 has increased by more than 87% , mainly due to the continuous expansion of various categories of expenses in order to achieve growth. ByteDance's cost of sales in 2021 will be US$27.4 billion, an increase of 79% over the previous year. Also included were $14.6 billion in research and development expenses, $19.2 billion in sales and marketing expenses and $75.6 billion in fair value changes in a range of convertible securities.
According to the report, the reason for this phenomenon is that a company rapidly increases its operating income and continuously accumulates large reserves of cash reserves and other investments due to the accounting treatment of those securities. worth tens of billions of dollars). Unrealized losses occur when the market value of a security falls, even if the asset is not actually sold. ByteDance's total operating loss in 2021 will be US$7.15 billion, much higher than the US$2.14 billion in 2020.
According to the report, in the first quarter of 2022, ByteDance's revenue reached nearly 18.3 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of nearly 54% , and it achieved operating profit. Thanks to further control of expenses, ByteDance’s net loss in the first quarter of this year was US$4.7 billion, a drop of nearly 84% from US$29.1 billion in the same period last year. Foreign media said that the reduction in net losses may reflect ByteDance's adjustment of its valuation. ByteDance's valuation at the end of 2020 was US$180 billion, and the current listing plan has been suspended.