ByteDance’s short-video app On Wednesday, Douyin announced early talks with Dalian Wanda Group over its payments unit.
According to Bloomberg, Wanda was in talks with ByteDance to sell its digital payments license for around 1 billion yuan ($144 million). However, talks could cut the price.
A spokeswoman for Douyin, the Chinese counterpart of TikTok, declined to comment beyond confirming the preliminary negotiations. Wanda did not comment.
Wanda is trying to boost cash while waiting for Chinese regulators to approve its Hong Kong IPO of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group Co.
According to Reuters, Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin, once China’s richest man, told an internal meeting last week that the IPO was struggling and that it would cease acquiring land and halt new property management projects to minimize debt in two years.
Wanda’s department stores and cinemas allowed online payments after buying 99Bill’s payments license in 2014.
After receiving another payment license in 2020, ByteDance introduced a third-party Douyin payment service in 2021.
