News of the stakes and the board seat was first reported by
The Information on Monday.
WangTouZhongWen (Beijing) Technology, which is owned by
three Chinese state entities including a fund backed by China's main Internet
watchdog, has a 1 percent stake in Beijing ByteDance Technology, according to
shareholder data from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity
System.
The stake gives Beijing a board seat at the subsidiary which
holds some of the business licenses covering Douyin and Toutiao, some of
ByteDance's most popular domestic apps, a source familiar with the matter said.
It does not give not give the Chinese government any stake
in the firm's hit short video app TikTok, the source said. TikTok is not
available in China.
The Chinese subsidiary "only relates to some of
ByteDance's China-market video and information platforms, and holds some of the
licenses they require to operate under local law," a ByteDance
spokesperson told Reuters on Monday.
An affiliate, WangTouTongDa (Beijing) Technology, similarly
holds a 1 percent stake in Beijing Weimeng Technology, Weibo's main domestic
subsidiary, according to a separate government data report and filings it made
to the US securities regulator.
Weibo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the SEC filing, it said its unit received the investment from WangTouTongDa
in April 2020 and that WangTouTongDa (Beijing) Technology had the right to
appoint a director to Weiming's three-member board.
Corporate information app Tianyancha said the ByteDance unit
stake transfer was registered on April 30, 2021.
Although Chinese regulators have clamped down on a range of
sectors, tech has come in for some of the harshest measures to date.
Regulators say they are concerned about issues ranging from
its technology giants' market power to their management of user data, and have
launched antitrust probes, cancelled deals and published new guidance for the
sector.
WangTouZhongWen (Beijing) Technology is co-owned by the
China Internet Investment Fund, a China National Radio subsidiary and the
Beijing Cultural Investment Development Group, its company registration filing
showed.
The China Internet Investment Fund, which was established by
the Cyberspace Administration of China and the country's finance ministry,
fully owns WangTouTongDa (Beijing) Technology.
© Reuters