This is where it all began! In March, ByteDance was founded by Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo. The company's very first office was a modest four-bedroom apartment in Beijing, and the team was tiny—just 10 like-minded entrepreneurs. They were fast, developing 12 apps to test the market right out of the gate. In July, we launched our first flagship product, Toutiao, a content discovery and creation platform in China. The team was convinced that mobile phones were the future of information flow, and Toutiao was born from that idea.

 

This was a pivotal year for us. In July, ByteDance officially embarked on its globalization journey, which set us on the path to where we are today. We also announced our first company vision and values in August, and in December, our Friday CEO Chats evolved into the CEO All-Hands meetings we still have to drive clear and candid communication. This culture of open and honest dialogue has been a part of our DNA from the very beginning.

 

This was a huge year for us! In May, TikTok was launched globally. The team had a global mindset from the start, and they chose the name "TikTok" because it's easy to pronounce in many languages and mimics the sound of a clock, perfect for a short-video platform. We followed that up in November by acquiring Musical.ly and later merged it with TikTok in August 2018 to create the platform you know and love today. We also introduced Lark, our internal collaboration tool, in December. We built it from the ground up after finding no existing tool on the market met our needs for seamless, all-in-one communication and it continues to serve us globally.

 

We officially introduced our shared ways of working, called ByteStyle, in May. These principles were created to guide how we work and grow together. By June, TikTok became a top app in the App Store in several countries and regions, showing just how fast we were growing globally!

 

In March, our internal collaboration tool, Lark, was launched globally to external markets. This was a big moment for us, as it meant a tool that had been designed to keep our own employees connected across the world was now available for other organizations to use. At the end of the year, in December, we also introduced our official mission: "Inspire Creativity, Enrich Life."

 

In April, we launched CapCut, a video editing tool that has become incredibly popular worldwide. It was born out of a need for an easy-to-use, efficient editing app. CapCut was designed to empower both beginners and professionals, making high-quality video editing accessible to everyone.

 

This was a big year for expansion! We launched TikTok Shop in February as we expanded our e-commerce presence into global markets. The goal was to help users not only see an enriched life but also experience it by shopping for quality goods on the platform. In March, we launched BytePlus, which provides our intelligent platform services, like data analytics and computer vision, to other businesses. By October, TikTok hit a major milestone, reaching 1 billion monthly active users!

 

In June, we renewed our ByteStyle and Leadership Principles to keep them fresh and relevant. And by the end of June, TikTok Shop was officially launched in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, and the UK!

 

We received some major recognition in June when Time Magazine named TikTok one of the "100 Most Influential Companies." To round out the year, we launched TikTok Music, a premium music streaming service, in July.