ByteDance First-Half 2026 Net Profit Falls on AI Spending as Revenue Rises 30%

ByteDance's net profit fell year on year in the first half of 2026, mainly because of increased investment in artificial intelligence. Revenue rose about 30% year on year in the same period to USD 120 billion. Douyin continued to contribute most of ByteDance's revenue, while overseas income, mainly from TikTok, accounted for more than 30% of total revenue. The overseas share has continued to climb, from 25% in 2024 to about 30% in 2025 and above 30% in the first half of 2026. ByteDance declined to comment on the figures.

ByteDance's net profit margin was 26% in 2023 and 21% in 2024, before falling further to about 16.7% in the first half of 2026. In 2025, ByteDance's revenue grew 29% year on year to about USD 200 billion, while net profit rose 27% to USD 42 billion. Meta's revenue stood at USD 117 billion in the same period, meaning ByteDance's 2025 revenue exceeded Meta's level for the period. Meta has a market value of about USD 1.7 trillion, while ByteDance is valued at about USD 63 billion.

ByteDance develops its own large language models and video models and operates the mobile chatbot app Doubao. The company is expanding its AI cloud business, offering its self-developed models to enterprise customers, and has launched its Seedance video generation model. ByteDance recently obtained about USD 30 billion in loans from banks, its largest borrowing to date, to support artificial intelligence investment.

In China, ByteDance's competitors are also raising funds for artificial intelligence. Alibaba is seeking to raise about USD 10 billion through a large-scale rights issue to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure spending. Zhipu recently announced financing arrangements totaling about USD 5 billion for next-generation GLM models, a fully self-trained system and related computing infrastructure.

On TikTok, after an agreement covering its United States business, TikTok is using a new program to attract established brands to TikTok Shop in order to expand its e-commerce business in the United States. Public information shows that TikTok Shop reached 400 million active consumers in 2025, with gross merchandise value approaching USD 100 billion. Estimates indicate that TikTok Shop's gross merchandise value in the third quarter of 2025 was comparable in scale to eBay's. In 2025, ByteDance's overseas business grew by nearly 50% year on year, while domestic revenue grew about 20%.