TikTok’s Revenue Grows Fivefold Since 2018, Chinese Market Accounts for 69%

According to data released by the mobile app market intelligence agency SensorTower, TikTok, the international version of Douyin, a short-video app developed by ByteDance, generated $176.9 million in revenue in 2019, growing fivefold since 2018.

SensorTower data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2019 alone, TikTok’s revenue reached $88.5 million, which is twice the third quarter 2019 revenue and six times the fourth quarter figures of 2018. Most of the app’s revenue came from advertising and in-app purchases.

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China accounted for the largest share of the app’s earnings. Apple’s iOS users in China spent $122.9 million on TikTok, which is 69% of the app’s total revenue in 2019. American consumers spend considerably less, accounting for 20% of the revenue at $36 million. The UK ranked third, with users spending $4.2 million on TikTok last year, which is only 2% of the total revenue generated.

In 2019, TikTok’s global downloads exceeded 738 million, an increase of 13% from 655 million in 2018. The fourth quarter of 2019 became the best-performing quarter in TikTok’s history, with 219 million downloads, increasing by 6% year-on-year. TikTok was the second most downloaded app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store globally in 2019, behind only WhatsApp, which was downloaded a total of 849 million times.