The social media giant, worth an estimated $180 billion, has been considering an IPO of all or some of its businesses in the United States or Hong Kong for some time now, the WSJ said.
Reportedly, the company's founder, Zhang Yiming, made the decision to postpone the initial public offering in late March following the recommendations from the cyberspace and securities regulators to focus on addressing data-security risks before listing offshore. ByteDance also had other reasons for delaying the listing, including not having a chief financial officer at the time, the journal said.
According to the WSJ, ByteDance became one of 13 Internet companies urged by the government to adhere to much stricter data regulation and lending practices.
Since its foundation in 2021, ByteDance has developed TikTok into one of the most popular networking apps worldwide, with over 100 million users in the United States alone.