Asian Tech Press (Nov 15) -- ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese parent company of TikTok, reportedly had revenue of about $54 billion in the first half of this year.

ByteDance is closing the revenue gap with Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc., with its advertising and e-commerce revenues growing sharply, The Information reported on Tuesday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said ByteDance realized revenue of $29 billion in the second quarter of this year, up by more than 40% year-on-year.

That growth rate is much higher than that of other advertising-driven Internet companies, including Meta, whose revenue rose 11% to $32 billion in the same period.

The report noted that overseas business was the main driver of ByteDance's growth, and people familiar with the matter said that revenue from overseas markets accounted for nearly 20% of the company's total revenue in the second quarter.

Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Chinese company posted revenue of nearly $24.5 billion in the first quarter of this year, up nearly 34% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, ByteDance realized an operating profit of nearly $6 billion in the quarter, almost double that of the same period last year.

Last year, ByteDance had annual revenues of $85.2 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of more than 38%.