Which company is listed as a developer of TikTok?

ByteDance is listed as a developer of TikTok.

ByteDance, founded in Beijing in 2012 by Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo, created Douyin for the Chinese market in 2016 and launched TikTok internationally in 2017. The two services share related technology and branding but operate as separate platforms.

TikTok’s international growth accelerated after ByteDance acquired Musical.ly in 2017 and merged it into TikTok in 2018. That history can cause confusion: Musical.ly was an earlier platform, while ByteDance is the parent company and developer behind TikTok. Baidu, Meta, and Tencent are major technology companies, but they are not TikTok’s developer.

ByteDance also develops other products, including Toutiao, CapCut, Lemon8, and Douyin. Its ownership and corporate structure have attracted regulatory scrutiny in several countries, but those debates do not change the company identified as TikTok’s developer.