TikTok owner ByteDance reportedly hit $3 billion in net profit in 2019

• TikTok's parent company ByteDance generated $3 billion in profit last year, Bloomberg reports.
• Sources told the publication that ByteDance pulled in $17 billion in revenue in 2019, more than double what it made in 2018.
• The comfortable financial position means ByteDance can take its time with going public.
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ByteDance, parent company to short-form video app TikTok, pulled in more than $3 billion in profit last year, Bloomberg reports.

Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that ByteDance generated $17 billion in revenue for 2019, a jump of more than double from 2018 when it made roughly $7.4 billion.

Bloomberg's sources said the pool of cash means ByteDance is taking its time with its planned IPO, as it now has $6 billion in cash on hand. One analyst told Bloomberg the company could IPO at between $150 billion and $180 billion.

It also makes ByteDance more profitable than several Silicon Valley peers, such as Twitter with net income of $1.47 billion, or Snapchat which reported a net loss for the year.

ByteDance was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Business Insider.

TikTok's global rise has been meteoric, and the app now poses a threat to the likes of American social media giants like Facebook and Twitter.

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic has driven even more people to the app, which now has more than 2 billion users.

In Q1 of 2020 TikTok got 315 million new installs, the most downloads any app has ever gotten in a single quarter according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.

ByteDance has also quietly been expanding into music streaming, announcing the launch of its music streaming app "Resso" in India in March of this year, as well as gaming.