ByteDance Overtakes Tencent and Baidu in Digital Ad Revenue

According to CNBC, in the first half of 2019, ByteDance generated more digital ad revenue than both Tencent and Baidu, with only Alibaba generating more.

According to a report by consultancy firm R3, ByteDance accounted for 23% of the total Internet advertising expenditure in the first half of this year, equivalent to 50 billion yuan ($7 billion). As stated in the report, this marks “stunning growth” for ByteDance. Compared to the same period of last year, ByteDance’s advertising revenue in the first half of 2019 increased by 113%, most of which came from its short video platform TikTok and the newsfeed app Toutiao.

According to reports, Alibaba accounts for 33% of the Internet advertising market, about 72.1 billion yuan. The market share of Baidu and Tencent is 17% (about 36.9 billion yuan) and 14% (about 29.8 billion yuan) respectively.

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According to SensorTower, among the most popular apps in terms of total downloads, TikTok now ranks the third, following WhatsApp and Messenger, while the fourth and fifth are Facebook and Instagram.

Most of the increase in TikTok downloads came from India, which accounted for 31% of the total downloads. The second largest market is China, accounting for 11.5% of downloads, while US users accounted for 8.2%.

Founded in 2012, ByteDance owns several most popular short video platforms including TikTok, Duoshan video, Xigua video and others. In the past two years, there have been consistent rumors about a potential IPO. In October 2018, the company completed another round of financing led by SoftBank, raising $3 billion, bringing ByteDance’s total valuation to $75 billion.