It was found that TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin users spent more than 8 trillion won last year. TikTok faced a risk of being banned in the United States, but it has gained popularity among social media users by leveraging its addictive short-form content. Experts analyzed that TikTok's growth trend shows the growth potential of the creator economy within the social media economic structure.
According to the tech media TechCrunch on the 25th, the app market research firm Sensor Tower stated in a report that TikTok and Douyin recorded approximately $6 billion (8.58 trillion won) in in-app purchase revenue, making it the first non-gaming app to do so annually. This represents a 36% increase compared to TikTok's in-app purchase revenue of $4.4 billion last year.
In the fourth quarter of last year alone, TikTok recorded $1.9 billion (approximately 2.5 trillion won) in in-app purchase revenue, setting a new all-time high. The only non-gaming apps that surpassed TikTok's in-app payment revenue during the same period were YouTube and Google's subscription service. Previously, TikTok was the first non-gaming app to exceed $10 billion (approximately 13.3 trillion won) in consumer expenditure in 2023.
TikTok's parent company ByteDance operates Douyin separately, the Chinese version of TikTok. Douyin, used only within China, is subject to government censorship and is known to have more active shopping features compared to TikTok. This figure represents the combined revenue of TikTok and Douyin.
TechCrunch assessed that the increase in TikTok's revenue proves the growth potential of the so-called 'creator economy.' The creator economy refers to an economic ecosystem in which individuals create content on digital platforms and generate revenue from it. Content creators within TikTok are referred to as 'creators.' Users can purchase virtual gifts to send to creators, who can then cash these out. TikTok takes 50% of the creators' revenue.
The number of TikTok users is also increasing domestically. According to the mobile index of IG Works, last month, the monthly active users (MAU) of TikTok and TikTok Lite were reported to be 4,898,510 and 4,791,235, respectively. Combined, these figures surpass Facebook's MAU of 8,618,065. The amount of in-app payments is also increasing. According to Sensor Tower, TikTok recorded approximately $3.5 million in monthly in-app purchase revenue in the Korean market as of May last year. This places it third in terms of growth rate of in-app purchase revenue among social media platforms in Korea and second in actual amount, Sensor Tower reported.
However, TikTok ranks second globally in terms of downloads, trailing Instagram. Following them are WhatsApp, Facebook, and Temu.