Chinese Tech Group Behind TikTok Looks to Enter Finance

ByteDance, the Beijing-based multinational tech group behind Tiktok, is looking into adding banking to its line of products and services. It is currently bidding for a digital bank licence in Singapore.

ByteDance is likely to compete with a few other Asian tech giants including Alibaba’s Ant Financial and electronic leader Xiaomi to obtain one of the five virtual banking licences that the Monetary Authority of Singapore is about to issue this year.

The company has applied for one of the three wholesale bank licences. It could indicate that the licence can be limited to serving corporate clients and small and medium enterprises.

ByteDance does not offer a digital bank in mainland China. Most virtual financial services are dominated by Tencent’s Wechat and Alibaba’s Alipay. ByteDance considered applying for a digital bank license in Hong Kong previously. It has also indicated in the past that it might be tapping into e-commerce services.