TikTok to open an office in downtown Vancouver

The four towers of the Bentall Centre office complex in downtown Vancouver. (Hudson Pacific Properties)

TikTok has set its sights on expanding its footprint with a new office in downtown Vancouver, marking an apparent step in its growth strategy in Canada.

In the second quarter of 2024, the company leased the entirety of the 22nd level of the 32-storey Three Bentall Centre office tower at 595 Burrard Street, according to NAI Commercial.

Daily Hive Urbanized has reached out to TikTok for comment.

You might also like:

To enable further expansion, the company is aggressively growing its office footprint and workforce in the United States, Canada, and Australia, according to a January 2024 report in the South China Morning Post.

Also in January 2024, a Shanghai-based publication reported TikTok will establish research and development centres in Canada and Australia, but did not specify the exact cities.

However, Vancouver is a known global hub for tech companies to establish major research and development divisions. As of today, based on TikTok’s careers website page, there are 49 open positions for Vancouver-based roles in machine learning, software engineering, data science, and product management.

TikTok’s global headquarters are situated in Los Angeles and Singapore, and its offices include New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Currently, TikTok’s presence in downtown Vancouver uses the address of a co-working office business at 777 Dunsmuir Street.

the-stack-office-tower-1133-melville-street-vancouver-f1

Views of the Bentall Centre office towers from the rooftop of The Stack office tower. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Bentall Centre office complex in downtown Vancouver. (Hudson Pacific Properties)

The global usage of the short video app exploded during the pandemic, especially amongst teenagers and young adults.

A recent study by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) found that TikTok’s reach within Canada has tripled since just before the pandemic. However, TikTok has overtaken Facebook as the country’s least trusted social media platform, according to the same study.

As well, a CBC report in March 2024 interviewing the head of the federal government’s Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warned Canadians against using TikTok, as the personal information and user data gathered by the social media platform can be accessed by the Chinese government.

The Government of Canada is currently undertaking a national security review of TikTok’s proposal to expand its business in the country.

Due to similar privacy concerns, the United States’ federal government has provided TikTok with a deadline to divest itself from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or face a ban limiting its operations and growth in the US.

The TikTok office location is near the downtown Vancouver office of Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — at 200 Burrard Street, which opened in 2018.

Additionally, in terms of other major office leasing moves in Vancouver in the second quarter of 2024, Pennsylvania-based cloud-based data management firm Boomi will also open a major office in downtown Vancouver.

Boomi first indicated such a move in April 2023 when it announced its plan to establish a Centre of Excellence in Vancouver to support strategic business functions, including sales and business development. At the time, the company stated it would immediately add 80 staff and grow exponentially over the subsequent months and years. Boomi further stated that its immediate expansion would provide a US$20 million local economic impact in Vancouver, with significant expansion over the subsequent years expected to exceed US$100 million in economic benefits.

According to NAI Commercial, Boomi will occupy the 14th and 15th levels of Three Bentall Centre totalling nearly 31,000 sq ft of office space. This will be the company’s temporary space, before it moves into its permanent office space of 50,000 sq ft within the adjacent 35-storey Four Bentall Centre office tower at 1055 Dunsmuir Street.

“This expansion is an exciting opportunity for Boomi to tap into the pool of talent in a vibrant and dynamic city that embraces innovation and technology,” said Steve Lucas, the CEO of Boomi, in a previous statement.

“Having worked closely with many technology leaders in the Vancouver area, and with our commitment to providing industry-leading integration and automation solutions, we are eager to bring our expertise to Canada and contribute to the flourishing tech community in the region.”

Bentall Centre crown lighting. (Jorge Posada/Talentosa Productions)

TikTok’s space on the 22nd floor of Three Bentall Centre provides the company with about 16,000 sq ft of office space.

TikTok and Boomi’s spaces within Three Bentall Centre were previously occupied by a major WeWork co-working office business location in the building, which closed in Spring 2024 as part of the company’s continued global retraction from its oversized office space holdings. Most of WeWork’s 80,000 sq ft of space in this tower was previously used as temporary office space for Amazon workers over several years. The workers have since relocated to their new permanent, purpose-built offices at Amazon YVR14 on 402 Dunsmuir Street and the Amazon Hub at The Post on 345 West Georgia Street.

WeWork has two remaining locations in downtown Vancouver. It has retained most of its space within the adjacent Two Bentall Centre office tower at 555 Burrard Street, and its space at Grant Thornton Place office tower at 333 Seymour Street.

In late 2023, WeWork announced it will end its lease commitments for existing and yet-to-be-opened co-working office spaces at three other locations in Metro Vancouver, entailing major spaces in the new B6 office tower at 1090 West Pender Street and an older building at 1045 Howe Street in downtown Vancouver, and a new office space at The Amazing Brentwood Mall in Burnaby. Despite the recent closures, WeWork currently still has five co-working locations across Metro Vancouver.

As first reported by Daily Hive Urbanized in February 2024, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) — the legendary Disney-owned visual effects studio that is perhaps best known for creating Star Wars — is relocating from Gastown to the newly-built The Stack office tower at 1133 Melville Street.

The Stack, completed in 2023, is Vancouver’s new tallest office building, with a height of 530 ft containing 37 storeys and 550,000 sq ft of office space.

At The Stack, ILM staff will have access to 300 seats for a hybrid work arrangement, along with ample in-building amenities. ILM’s Vancouver studio employs several hundred people locally.

According to NAI Commercial, ILM’s new space at The Stack spans 40,000 sq ft, which is about 33% larger than its previous 30,000 sq ft Gastown location.

the stack office tower 1133 melville street vancouver

Exterior of The Stack office tower. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

the stack office tower vancouver 1133 melville street

Exterior of The Stack office tower. (Oxford Properties)

You might also like: