TikTok troubles narrow gap between Beijing and ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming

ByteDance founder Zhang Zhang has focussed on global growth even as his counterparts have retrenched from overseas and opted to focus on domestic markets. — Reuters

BEIJING/HONG KONG: ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has long positioned himself as a global Internet entrepreneur, largely eschewing Chinese government involvement, but US demands to sell his crown jewel TikTok are testing the boundaries with Beijing.

A year ago, ByteDance was approached by the Chinese government with offers of help when TikTok, a short-video app with a huge following among young people globally, faced political heat in India, a source familiar with the situation said. But the company sent only mid-level staff to meet with government officials, signalling that the company wanted to go it alone.