BEIJING, December 19 (TMTPost)— TikTok achieved a new milestone. The short video social phenomenon became the first mobile app that is not a video game to generate US$10 billion in global user spending, according to app intelligence provider data.ai.

Credit：Visual China

 TikTok has raked in US$3.8 more than US$6.2 billion of consumer spending prior to 2023 and managed to add US3.8 billion to that total over the year, data.ai estimated based on data across the Apple App Store and Google Play.The additional earnings this year accounted for nearly 40% of the total revenue since TikTok’s inception in 2016. The figure represented a growth of 61% from where it started 2023 and was 15% greater than 2022’s sum of US$3.3 billion. Data.ai suggested TikTok’s total consumer spending could be even higher as the data it complied excluded Andriod spending of Google Play in China, where only third party Android marketplaces operate.

According to data.ai, there are only five mobile apps to boasts more than US$10 billion of gross revenue. Besides TikTok, other four apps to surpass such milestone include Candy Crush Saga from King/Activison Blizzard, the top earner at over US$12 billion, Tencent’s Honor of Kings with US$11 billion, Monster Strike from XFLAG/Mixi with US$10.6 billion and Clash of Clans from Supercell  with US$10.2 billion. It took just 15 months for TikTok to double revenue, making the ByteDance’s unit the fastest app to have such achievement.  

Credit：data.ai

All of consumer spendings on TikTok come from its coins, which comprise the app’s numerous one-time in-app purchase (IAPs) as it doesn't offer subscriptions. Users can spend these coins on gifts as their tippings for content creators on TikTok, who can trade them for virtual diamonds and convert them into fiat currency, and the app retains 50% of the payout amount. TikTok’s most popular IAP this year is its bundle of 1,321 coins for US$19.99, which makes up about a quarter of its IAP revenue, according to data.ai. TikTok is set to become the highest earning mobile app ever as it is approaching the $15 billion milestone in 2024, said Lexi Sydow, Head of Insights at data.ai. Data.ai anlysis expected TikTok users are poised to spend a 40-hour work week each month in the app by the end of 2024, increasing 22% from 2023.

TikTok owner ByteDance hasn’t made public about detailed financial results such as sales and profit. But news earlier this year suggested while the Chinese tech titan gets a bulk of revenue from China, where it operates TikTok’s sister app Douyin, overseas operations, especially TikTok, are helping drive its growth.  

The Information reported in August that ByteDance recorded revenue of US$85 billion last year with a 38% year-over-year (YoY)  increase, while revenue from China grew to US $69 billion with at growth rate of 25%, about one third of annual growth for the year 2021, as growth in the market had slowed to 68% that year, down from rates of 150% and 105% in 2019 and 2020 respectively. In comparison, TikTok as well as video games, softwares and other businesses overseas contributed US$16 billion last year, more than doubling US $6.5 billion of sales in 2021. These overseas operations only generated US$1.2 billion in year 2020.

In the quarter ended June, markets outside China contributed US$5.8 billion, or about 20% of ByteDance’s total revenue, and the most majority came from TikTok, which likely generated at least US$5 billion, The Information cited people familiar with the figures last month. The U.S. tech media outlet learned that ByteDance’s revenue in the second quarter jumped 40% YoY to US$29 billion. If the data is accurate, TikTok parent should have delivered a much robust growth and its quarterly sales have overtaken Tencent. Tencent’s revenue rose 11% YoY to RMB149.2 billion (US$20.6 billion) in the quarter ended June 30, missing the Wall Street expectation of RMB152.021 billion.

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