Introtopic: Feishu Surpasses $100 Million in Annual Recurring Revenue
Feishu, ByteDance’s workplace collaboration app, has achieved a major milestone – surpassing $100 million in annual recurring revenue last year. This impressive feat is a testament to the power of innovation and the potential of workplace collaboration tools. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the success of Feishu, the strategic importance of its six individual business groups, and the challenges of operating an enterprise tech startup in China. So, read on to learn more about how Feishu achieved its impressive milestone!
Feishu’s Success
Feishu has become one of ByteDance’s six individual business groups, meaning it is given the same strategic importance as other BGs at ByteDance, such as TikTok, Douyin, Dali, BytePlus, and Nuverse. This milestone was first reported by the Chinese tech news site 36kr, shortly after a controversial article by Leiphone questioned Feishu’s cash burn.
Feishu’s Features
Feishu offers an all-encompassing work communication messenger with handy features such as automatic notetaking for video calls, shared calendars, and collaborative documents. Feishu spent plenty of resources building these functions itself, a contrast to Slack’s open platform that integrates with a myriad of third-party applications. Doing everything in-house is conducive to delivering a frictionless user experience, but it comes at a huge cost.
Comparison to Slack
At its peak in 2022, Feishu had a headcount of 10,000 (including outsourced workers), according to the Leiphone article. The Wall Street Journal reported that Feishu currently has 7,000 people. For comparison, Slack reported 2,545 full-time employees and an annual revenue of $902.6 million in January 2021.
Product-Led Growth in China
ByteDance’s heavy investment in Feishu is telling of the state of enterprise software in China. At a time when Silicon Valley investors are heralding product-led growth — services that convert users through their products — software in China are still largely counting on sales, marketing and services to recruit users. As a handful of founders lamented to me over the years, the culture of paying for SaaS hasn’t really arrived in China yet, so many of them are now stepping up overseas expansion.
Conclusion
Feishu’s impressive milestone of surpassing $100 million in annual recurring revenue is a testament to the power of innovation and the potential of workplace collaboration tools. Despite the challenges of operating an enterprise tech startup in China, Feishu has proven that success is achievable with the right strategies and resources.