Bytedance’s short video platform, TikTok, has generated $3.8 billion in consumer spending from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in 2023 to bring its total revenue to $10 billion.
This was disclosed in a report by app intelligence provider, data.ai. According to the report, with this, TikTok becomes the first non-game app to hit this milestone.
Data.ai noted that TikTok became the first mobile app to generate more than $1 billion in worldwide consumer spending during a single quarter in Q1 2023.
The social video app came into 2023 with more than $6.2 billion of consumer spending and has managed to add $3.8 billion to that total over the year.
According to the report, the added adoption represents growth of 61% from where it started in 2023 and was 15% greater than 2022’s sum of $3.3 billion.
5 apps that have hit $10 billion
The report noted that by surpassing the $10 billion gross revenue milestone, TikTok has become one of just five mobile apps to have done so, and the first that was not a mobile game to do so.
- “It sits atop the market alongside mobile greats Candy Crush Saga from King/Activision Blizzard, the all-time top earner at more than $12 billion, Honor of Kings from Tencent ($11B), Monster Strike from XFLAG/Mixi ($10.6B) and Clash of Clans from Supercell ($10.2B).
- “The next-closest applications to the $10 billion milestone are Tinder and YouTube, but they trail TikTok by between $2 and $3 billion as the year comes to a close,” the report stated.
What TikTok users are buying
According to the report, the spending comes from TikTok’s in-app purchases of “coins” — a virtual currency that users can spend on gifts for creators on the platform.
These gifts reward creators for their content and can be cashed out as fiat currency, with TikTok retaining 50% of the payout.
The app’s most popular in-app purchase is a bundle of 1,321 coins for $19.99, which makes up a quarter of its revenue.
TikTok also generates revenue outside of in-app purchases, like via advertising and e-commerce with TikTok shop, but these weren’t counted in data.ai’s analysis.
$15 billion projection
Data.ai projected that TikTok’s revenue would see even greater growth in 2024 to reach $15 billion in consumer spending, or 50% more than its current cumulative sum.
This is on top of TikTok’s other revenue streams, which began with in-app advertising and have expanded to include e-commerce in the form of TikTok Shop, which launched in the app in September of this year.
- “TikTok is poised to become the highest-earning mobile app ever — approaching the $15 billion milestone in 2024. Consumers are spending over $11 million per day tipping their favourite content creators, propelling TikTok past the world’s most lucrative mobile game to date: the addictive and beloved Candy Crush Saga. TikTokers are poised to spend a 40-hour work week each month in the app by the end of 2024, +22% from 2023,” Head of Insights at data.ai, Lexi Sydow, said.
