Washington:

From its birth in a Beijing apartment 12 years ago, ByteDance has grown into one of the world’s largest technology companies, best known in most countries as the creator of TikTok.

But TikTok now faces a fierce campaign in Washington: The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a bill Wednesday that could see the popular video-sharing app sever ties with Bytedance if it doesn’t cut ties with ByteDance. The United States is banned.

How big is ByteDance?

ByteDance has grown rapidly in recent years to become one of the world’s most valuable companies, with a market capitalization of about $225 billion, according to market intelligence firm CP Insights.

That puts it well above Elon Musk’s SpaceX and ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017. The app became popular around the world, with over 1 billion users within four years.

The app, the international version of Douyin, was launched in China in 2016 and now has hundreds of millions of users.

Thanks to the explosive growth of these apps, ByteDance has expanded into e-commerce and travel booking and released a video editing app.

The Chinese company said it has more than 150,000 employees in nearly 120 cities around the world.

As a private company, ByteDance does not release revenue and profit figures, but media estimates of its earnings put it on par with some of the world’s largest companies.

Bloomberg reported in December that ByteDance’s sales would top $110 billion in 2023, a figure higher than Chinese technology giant Tencent’s estimated revenue for that year.

ByteDance did not respond to AFP’s inquiries about its revenue, including how much it gets from TikTok.

TikTok and Facebook parent company Meta pay AFP and more than 100 fact-checking organizations to verify videos that may contain false information.

Who owns ByteDance?

TikTok said about 60% of ByteDance’s shares are held by institutional investors including U.S. giant BlackRock.

According to TikTok, ByteDance’s founders own 20% of the shares, with the remainder held by employees.

ByteDance is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its investors also include General Atlantic. According to TikTok, three of the five members of ByteDance’s board of directors are Americans.

A Chinese state-owned entity owns 1% of Douyin, according to ByteDance’s website. TikTok said this was required by Chinese law and would not affect ByteDance’s international business.

The 1% stake also includes a board seat for ByteDance’s Chinese entity, technology news site The Information reported in 2021.

In March last year, when asked at a U.S. Congressional hearing whether there were Chinese officials on the board of directors of Beijing ByteDance Technology, TikTok CEO Shou Zizhou said “I believe so.”

However, he said at that hearing that TikTok would not be “manipulated by any government.”

Why does ByteDance worry the United States?

Although TikTok is based outside China, many U.S. lawmakers (Republicans and Democrats) do not believe TikTok is independent from Beijing.

The app has been a diplomatic hot potato between the United States and China since the administration of former President Donald Trump, who had wanted to ban it.

Now, a bill in Congress aims to force the company to sever ties with ByteDance or face being banned from entering the United States.

Supporters of the bill say ByteDance, as a Chinese company, simply cannot go against Beijing’s wishes and could provide the data of more than 170 million U.S. users for everything from espionage to election influence campaigns.

Those concerns were echoed by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including this week’s FBI director, as well as other local regulators.

The United States and several other countries, including Australia and Canada, have banned the use of TikTok on government employee work phones due to security concerns.

TikTok was one of hundreds of Chinese apps banned in India in 2020 following deadly clashes at the border with China. New Delhi said at the time that the bans were aimed at fending off threats to its sovereignty.

How do ByteDance and TikTok respond?

Both men insisted there was no risk to U.S. user data. TikTok’s CEO told Congress that the Chinese government has never asked the company for U.S. user data and has not provided it.

The company said all U.S. traffic is now routed through U.S. infrastructure and that it is deleting previously collected data. It also said Douyin employees did not have access to TikTok’s U.S. user data.

If the bill is passed, TikTok will file a lawsuit in a U.S. court against ByteDance’s forced breakup, Bloomberg reported.

The White House said President Joe Biden would sign the bill if it passes Congress, but its chances of success are uncertain given Senate opposition.

What about China?

China has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the forced sale of TikTok. On Wednesday, it warned against targeting TikTok.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens U.S. national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok” and described the bill as “bullying.”

“Ultimately, this will inevitably come back to hurt the United States itself.”

Any sale of TikTok would likely require approval from Beijing.

China’s Ministry of Commerce issued regulations in 2020 to include “civilian use” in the list of restricted export technologies.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)