TikTok has accomplished something that seemed impossible: take over Facebook. The success of this social network that infects everything and everyone with short videos is incredible, and now a new metric proves it. It’s something managers should rub their hands over.

Users have already spent $10 billion on TikTok. The app reached 1 billion monthly active users (MAU) in September 2021, now reaching a new milestone as the first mobile app – it is worth emphasizing – to achieve $10 billion in spending revenue directly from its mobile app. consumers. It did this on both the App Store and Google Play, according to a report by data.ai.

This is not a mobile game, it’s an app. The first truly notable surprise of this milestone is that TikTok is a mobile application: Of course, it was mobile games that have managed to generate this revenue from their users so far. Especially viral megahits like ‘Honor of Kings’, ‘Monster Strike’, ‘Candy Crush Saga’ and of course ‘Clash of Clans’.

But TikTok is growing and getting better than games. TikTok had a hard time getting started: It took at least 79 months to reach 1 billion user revenue, while none of its rivals took more than 20 months. From there, yes, its growth has been phenomenal: it took 22 months to go from $1,000 million to $5,000 million, and only another 15 months to reach that $10,000 million. It took more than twice as long as the fastest of its rivals, ‘Honor of Kings’, to make the final jump.

Don’t let the rhythm stop. The report highlights how TikTok managed to generate $3.8 billion in revenue from user spending in 2023 (estimate since the year is not over); That’s 15% more than $3,300 in 2022. The data is even more conservative: independent Chinese Android app stores have a lot of weight there and therefore likely drive revenue even higher. Revenues generated through advertising or e-commerce are not included in this report.

New digital gold TikTok “coins”What do users spend their money on TikTok? Nothing more and nothing less than “tokens,” which are the virtual currency of the platform and allow offering them as donations, tips or gifts to creators, among other things. These are rewards for creators who can then convert them into real money, but yes: TikTok keeps 50% of this revenue.

Countries that spend the most. Users in the US and China spend the most: each representing 30% of the total (60% overall). Farther away are other markets such as Saudi Arabia, Germany, the UK and Japan, which represent 13% of total revenue.

And it looks like 2024 will be even better. Data.ai analysts are particularly optimistic about TikTok’s revenue growth: They expect it to hit or be very close to its next milestone of $15 billion in 2024, implying $5 billion in annual revenue in this space. “Users spend $11 million a day delivering their own content to their favorite creators,” they explain.

affiliated with TikTok. Another important fact will contribute to this: in 2024, the use of this social network is expected to increase even more. “By the end of 2024, TikTok users will spend 40 hours per week working on the app, 22% more than in 2023.” stands out in the report. This phenomenon seems unstoppable, at least in the short term.

Image | Xataka with Visual Electric

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