The income of TikTok quintupled in 2021 compared to the previous year to reach $1 billion. The rise of the Chinese social network is twice as fast as that of its big American rivals.
A clone of Chinese app Douyin, TikTok hit the global market in 2018 and grew exponentially in 2020 as billions of people were stuck at home. It is particularly popular among young users.
Dizzying growth
The subsidiary of the giant ByteDance has just taken a new step. It has indeed announced that its turnover has increased by 477%, from $171 million in 2020 to $990 million last year. Europe and the United Kingdom accounted for 80% of this sum.
” This increase is primarily due to the continued growth of our user base and improved monetization tools to improve advertiser experience and ad performance. “, explained the company. TikTok hit 1 billion monthly active users in 2021, four years after it rolled out globally. By way of comparison, it took twice as long for giants like Facebook, YouTube or Instagram to pass this pivotal milestone.
TikTok is also the most popular application with the coveted 18-25 year old market. Its popularity is such that Meta tries in many ways to copy it, especially through Instagram Reels that the company pushes to the maximum, sometimes even against the advice of its users.
The West is not reassured by the popularity of TikTok
The Chinese social network continues to grow and currently has over 1.5 billion active users. We must also take into account the fact that TikTok achieves this feat without being available worldwide. In 2020, for example, the application was withdrawn from the very large Indian market.
Despite its popularity, the social network must face the reluctance of regulators. Western countries blame it for the proximity of its parent company, ByteDance, to the Chinese government. Two years ago, the Trump administration even tried to have it banned from American soil. If this did not ultimately take place, the application still decided to reassure Washington by migrating the data of its American users to Oracle’s servers.
Source : The Guardian
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