INTERNATIONAL_ According to reports, game publishers have spent about $2.3 billion on ByteDance’s popular video-sharing app TikTok.
SensorTower published on January 13 the investment report from game developers. This number includes transactions made on the iOS version of the Douyin app – the mainland Chinese version of TikTok, which represents a 77% growth year-on-year, up from $1.3 billion in 2020.
User spending on TikTok reached $824.4 million in Q4 2021, more than double the $382.4 million generated in the same period of 2020.
While China remains TikTok’s largest market in terms of consumer spending, its share of the pie overall has shrunk significantly. In Q4 2021, 57% of spending came from Chinese users, while China’s app stores, accounted for 85% of in-app spending in Q4 2020.
The US maintains its ranking as the second-highest revenue generator for TikTok, with its share of total spending growing year on year. In the fourth quarter of last year, US game publishers spent nearly $110 million on this app, accounting for 13% of global revenue.
Meanwhile, TikTok usage declined year-on-year in 2021, partly due to the loss of access to India’s largest market in mid-2020.
The app hit around 740 million installs for the first time worldwide last year, down 25% from 980.7 million in 2020. Even so, the app still surpassed the impressive milestone with totals. 3 billion installs, becoming the first app since Facebook did.
TikTok targets $12 billion in advertising revenue by 2022, including the mobile game segment with the investment of publishers.
While TikTok adoption has slowed since it spiked in 2020, it’s not a sign that the app’s popularity is losing momentum. App spending continues to grow and often comes from sources outside of China’s app stores. ByteDance will certainly continue to build on this momentum with new features in 2022.