ByteDance is worth $550bn and even its own staff can’t track all its apps – but Beijing is watching

ByteDance, the Chinese technology giant behind TikTok, has quietly evolved into one of the most formidable forces in the global internet economy — so sprawling that even its own employees reportedly struggle to track its ever-expanding suite of applications. The company’s latest valuation of $550 billion places it among the world’s most valuable private firms, behind only OpenAI and SpaceX. Yet, as ByteDance deepens its presence across artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce and social media, it is drawing intensifying scrutiny — not just from Western governments, but increasingly from Beijing itself. An application factory at global scale Founded in 2012 by…