ByteDance unit establishes venture with Chinese state media firm

A unit of ByteDance, the owner of video-sharing platform TikTok, has established a joint venture with a Chinese state media group, official registration documents showed.

“The joint venture will focus on partnership in the digital rights of short videos,” a ByteDance spokeswoman said in response to Reuters inquiries about the deal.

ByteDance, which is one of China’s fastest-growing startups, has formed a series of partnerships with state media organisations in order to feed its leading news aggregator platform, Jinri Toutiao.

Under the latest deal, Beijing Liangzi Yuedong Technology Co Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ByteDance, will own 49 per cent of the new company, Pengpai Audiovisual Technology (Jinan) Co Ltd, with Shanghai Dongfang Newspaper Co Ltd holding the remaining 51 per cent majority stake, the documents from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System showed.

Shandong-based Pengpai Audiovisual was established on Dec. 10 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan, according to the documents. Pengpai is the Chinese name of ThePaper.cn, an online newspaper published by Shanghai Dongfang.

ByteDance’s TikTok platform has become popular with US teenagers and drawn stars like Ariana Grande and Katy Perry, but the company’s ties with Chinese authorities have faced scrutiny in recent weeks amid a US national security panel’s inquiry into the safety of the personal data it handles.