ByteDance boosts Shenzhen presence with ‘second headquarters’ for Douyin operations
The Chinese short video giant’s new base in Nanshan district was announced by the city’s publicity department on Tuesday
Chinese short video giant ByteDance is setting up a “second headquarters” for its flagship Douyin business in Shenzhen, less than a year after its first regional headquarters in the city began operations.
Once completed, the new base will support “research and development of core products such as Douyin and Jinri Toutiao, and new business areas such as digital payments”, as well as house “new AI research and SaaS [software-as-a-service] platform service centres to support the buildout of a robotics industry cluster”, according to a local government announcement.
The news was shared on Tuesday on a WeChat public account operated by the publicity department of Shenzhen’s southern Nanshan district to promote major construction projects in the city this year.
Thirty of the 222 new projects, including ByteDance’s new headquarters, are located in Nanshan district, with total investment there reaching 31 billion yuan (US$4.44 billion). The post included a digital rendering of the proposed development.
ByteDance, whose valuation recently surged to US$500 billion on the private market, operates Douyin, China’s most popular video-sharing platform, as well as its larger sibling TikTok internationally. It did not respond to a request for comment.