TikTok’s monthly revenue in May was 5 times higher than in the same month last year, reaching USD 9 million worldwide in Google Play and App Store, according to Sensor Tower.
The app also recorded a 22% month-over-month revenue growth compared to April’s USD 7.4 million monthly revenue.
Most of the revenue was generated from TikTok’s iPhone user in China. This group spent USD 5.9 million last month, accounting for nearly 65% of TikTok’ May earning.
The US, TikTok’s biggest overseas market by revenue, accounted for about 22% (about USD 2 million) of the app’s earning in May. India, where more than half of TikTok’s new overseas users came from, only saw a very limited outcome from monetization efforts, bringing in only about USD 45,000 in total.
TikTok’s whopping revenue growth last month coincides with an important personnel change at ByteDance, the Beijing-based company behind popular short-video app TikTok and news aggregation app Jinri Toutiao.
Alex Zhu, the co-founder of Musical.ly, whose short-video app Musical.ly was acquired by ByteDance in November 2017 and later rebranded as TikTok, was put in charge to spearhead TikTok’s international operation, multiple sources told 36Kr.
The short-video app by ByteDance, one of the world’s largest startups, amassed 1.2 billion installs and raked in USD 97.4 million since its launch in 2017.
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company.