ByteDance, the Chinese tech company that owns TikTok, has released a public update to its corporate structure days before TikTok's CEO is set to appear in Washington to answer lawmakers' questions about the social media app's data practices and its ties to China's government.
A new chart posted on the ByteDance website depicts the various corporate entities within the organization, along with the global locations in which they're incorporated. The chart, titled "Corporate Structure," shows TikTok Ltd as one of seven subsidiaries of the Cayman islands-based ByteDance Ltd.
The chart was posted on the site on March 15, according to a Fortune review of the ByteDance website on the internet archives. ByteDance's site describes the chart as a diagram of the company's corporate structure, principal subsidiaries, and variable interest entities as of Feb. 2, 2023.
TikTok's connection to China has raised heated concerns in the U.S., where the video app has 150 million users. Many politicians are concerned that the Chinese government is able to access the data of TikTok's American users and that it could use the app to spread misinformation and propaganda. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, the Biden administration has threatened a possible ban of TikTok in the U.S. if it not sold and separated from ByteDance. TikTok has said it does not store U.S. user data in China or provide the Chinese government access to the data.
On Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee for a hearing entitled "TikTok: How Congress Can Safeguard American Data Privacy and Protect Children from Online Harms." Among the issues on the agenda is TikTok's relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.
According to the corporate structure chart, the U.S.-based TikTok business is comprised of several interconnected U.S. entities, including "U.S. TikTok Data Security Inc," which, in turn, represent just one branch of TikTok, with other subsidiaries based in Singapore and the U.K.
Notably, the only direct connection to China shown in the corporate structure chart is through the Hong Kong-based Douyin Group. Douyin is the name of the Chinese version of the TikTok app, which operates under different rules than the TikTok version of the app available to users in the U.S. and other countries.
The chart shows that under the Douyin Group umbrella, unspecified "China State-Owned Enterprises" have a 1% stake in an entity called Beijing Douyin Co Info Services, Ltd, which is itself connected to the ByteDance parent through contractual agreements. A ByteDance spokesperson told Fortune by email that Beijing Douyin Info Services is the name of ByteDance's China business (which was previously named Beijing ByteDance Technology) and "is not and had never been the parent company" of ByteDance.
That information appears to be at odds with the House Committee's official memo for Thursday's hearing, which refers to the erstwhile Beijing ByteDance Technology as the company's current name, and describes it as interchangeable with ByteDance Ltd for the purpose of the hearing.
ByteDance is a privately-held company, and the chart of its corporate structure appears to be the first publicly available overview of its structure in several years. A previous corporate structure chart, dated June 2020, was removed from the ByteDance website in early 2021.
That chart had several notable differences from the current corporate structure, with fewer subsidiaries listed and no explicit reference to China state-owned enterprises. It also included a ByteDance U.S. subsidiary, separate from TikTok, that is no longer listed in the current corporate structure.
The ByteDance spokesperson said the company decided to post the corporate structure chart "to inform visitors of the website who we are as a private company," along with information about its board members and history, in conjunction with the company's 11th anniversary.
According to the website, TikTok has more than 150,000 employees based in 120 cities including Los Angeles, Jakarta, Beijing, and Paris.
Here is the new chart of ByteDance's corporate structure:
And below is the previous version of the ByteDance corporate structure, dated June 2020, which has not been available on the ByteDance site since early 2021:
