Lost on The Explore Page: Power, Policy, and the Battle for Digital Influence: ByteDance

By 2030 ByteDance has grown from a social-media heavyweight into a diversified global entertainment and commerce company, with TikTok and its related platforms continuing to anchor massive advertising and shopping revenues. Its influence on music, gaming, and international e-commerce has broadened its revenue base and reduced dependence on any single market. Despite ongoing regulatory scrutiny in several countries, the company maintains strong financial performance, high user engagement, and steady double-digit revenue growth. Overall, ByteDance enters 2030 as one of the world’s most profitable digital media firms with a robust, if geopolitically cautious, outlook.

ByteDance understands the necessity to transition into the future. It would like to create a robust AI product, combining its retention maximizing algorithm with existing generative AI technology. The next step for ByteDance, it understands, is to take over the AI entertainment industry, and the AI industry as a whole if possible. As a representation of Chinese strength, the Chinese Communist Party would also like to see ByteDance grow in global technological influence, and is willing to invest in and subsidize the company if necessary. 

One of ByteDance’s largest competitors is Meta, and it must create a strategy that allows it to surpass competitors like Meta in technological and AI influence. In some ways, this battle for power serves as a proxy for the ongoing power struggle between the United States and China on the global stage. In turn, it is in the best interest of the company, and of China, for ByteDance to outdo Meta on the global stage.