(Yicai) Feb. 5 -- ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, has acquired two pieces of land in the city center of Beijing for CNY2.8 billion (USD403.4 million) to build new office buildings to keep pace with its business expansion needs.

ByteDance's subsidiary bought the land in Haidian district at a land auction on Feb. 3, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources said on its website. The two parcels cover an area of 39,522 square meters, with a planned above-ground construction area of about 96,812 sqm.

Construction is set to commence within 12 months after signing the purchase and sales agreement, the commission noted, adding that it will be completed within three years.

ByteDance bought the land for new office buildings to meet its business expansion needs, Guo Yi, chief analyst at Heshuo Real Estate Brokerage, told Yicai. Companies build their own office buildings to avoid rent fluctuations when leasing, with such moves also conducive to asset appreciation and enhancing brand effects, he pointed out.

The plots ByteDance acquired were originally occupied by home furnishing retail mall Lanjing Lijia, which closed at the end of April last year and plans to move to a new site, according to Beijing's urban renewal plan. The land was then reclaimed by the government and put up for auction to transfer its use rights.

ByteDance has formed an office cluster in the area near its new land. It bought the Zhongkun Plaza to its north for CNY9 billion (USD1.3 billion) in 2019 to accommodate the research, development, and operation teams of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and its smart office software Feishu. It also purchased the Fangheng Fashion Center to its west for CNY5 billion in 2020 and renamed it the Douyin Fangheng Plaza, housing the business teams of Douyin and news aggregator Toutiao.

With the rapid development of China's digital economy in recent years, domestic internet giants have been buying land to build new office buildings to meet business expansion needs. Since 2019, ByteDance has invested CNY31.2 billion (USD4.5 billion) in land in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other big cities.

Gaming and internet titan Tencent Holdings spent CNY8.5 billion in 2019 and CNY6.4 billion in 2024 buying land in Shenzhen and Beijing for headquarters buildings.

Meituan, the largest on-demand delivery service provider in China, spent CNY6.5 billion buying a piece of land in Shanghai for a tech center in November 2020. Video website Bilibili invested CNY8.1 billion in a plot adjacent to that of Meituan to build a next-generation industrial park in early 2021.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev