TikTok to join other tech giants with move into downtown Austin tower

TikTok is the latest social media platform building roots in Austin. The Austin Business Journal reports that the video-sharing app has signed a lease for 125,000 square feet of downtown office space.

With this move into 300 Colorado St., TikTok is set to join Meta and Google with a downtown presence. The skyscraper was finished in 2021 and has about 353,000 square feet in total, with TikTok occupying the top six floors, unidentified people familiar with the matter told ABJ.

TikTok is also making masses of hires with 97 open positions in Austin with roles ranging from marketing and sales to product and corporate support.

TikTok, owned by ByteDance Ltd., is moving onto turf of other tech giants in Austin at a time when it’s outperforming them. Data at the end of last year found TikTok surpassed Google, Facebook and Apple in a ranking of the most popular websites. And Meta reported a notable dip in profits in its most recent quarter report.

Austin’s popularity is not just inside the tech giants, however. On a user level, many popular accounts and creators like Chupie the cat and Bastrop Cattle Co. are based in Central Texas and videos with the Austin hashtag have 1.7 billion views.

Wind of TikTok moving into downtown has been floating around since last summer. In the meantime, some employees have reportedly been using a co-working space in Austin.