9781422270479

properties. The project did not hold Zhang’s interest, however, and after just three years, he decided to hand it off to another executive so he could focus on another idea. BYTEDANCE In 2012, Zhang founded ByteDance, a tech startup that would go on to become the parent company of TikTok. As Zhang knew all too well, not even the best ideas can get far without the funding needed to turn them into a reality. So, in early 2012, the ByteDance team began the quest for venture capital by launching their Series A funding round. Fortunately, they got a $5 million infusion from SIG China, a Shanghai-based venture capital and private equity firm, to launch its first project (which was not TikTok). Often, when a founder sets out to create a new business, it’s because they’ve come up with a unique way to solve a problem. The issue that Zhang noticed was that it was becoming harder for Chinese smartphone users to find relevant information online. While Google is the preferred search platform for many Americans, Chinese users often turn to a search engine called Baidu. Part of the problem was that Baidu searches were becoming overrun by advertising, which made finding a solid search result much harder. That’s why ByteDance’s first product was an app called Toutiao. Launched in September 2012, Toutiao is a Chinese information platform that uses artificial intelligence to create custom news feeds for its users.

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