In the midst of the surging global digital wave, the competition in the social app industry resembles a war without smoke, with major platforms chasing each other and constantly setting new industry records. Among these fierce contenders, TikTok undoubtedly stands out as one of the most attention-grabbing players. From its initial rise to now firmly securing a top spot, every step of its development has captivated countless people. A major piece of news comes from the TikTok App Report released by Business of Apps in the UK: TikTok’s revenue in 2024 grew by 42.8% year-on-year, soaring to $23 billion, successfully ranking as the fourth-largest social app globally by revenue, just behind Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This achievement is no accident—it is the inevitable result of TikTok’s years of meticulous effort and highlights its strong commercial potential and unique competitiveness in the global social app market.
It is also worth mentioning that this success has injected strong momentum into its parent company ByteDance’s overseas business development. According to relevant data, although ByteDance’s net profit growth and profit margin slowed in 2024, its overseas business revenue, driven mainly by TikTok, grew by 63% year-on-year, accounting for a quarter of ByteDance’s total revenue, setting a historic high. Behind this data is TikTok’s extensive penetration and strategic positioning in global markets, which has become a crucial pivot supporting ByteDance’s global strategy, propelling it to new heights. So, what key factors in 2024 have contributed to TikTok’s astonishing revenue growth?
Advertising Business: The Strong Engine of Revenue Growth
As TikTok’s revenue “keystone,” the advertising business continued to show impressive explosive growth in 2024, accounting for over 80% of total revenue, providing a solid foundation for overall revenue expansion. The reason TikTok has achieved such outstanding results in the advertising field is closely linked to its unique algorithmic recommendation system. This mechanism acts like a precise “navigation system,” which can push ads directly to target users based on a variety of data, such as browsing history, interest preferences, and interactive behavior. This greatly improves the efficiency of ad reach and conversion.
66% of the platform’s users are aged between 18 and 34, a group that not only forms the backbone of the current consumer market but also shows high curiosity toward new things, high acceptance, and enormous consumption potential. For industries like fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), fashion, and gaming, such a user base is undoubtedly very attractive. For example, in the FMCG industry, numerous beauty and beverage brands view TikTok as an essential marketing platform, launching creative ads catering to young people’s tastes to quickly increase brand awareness and reputation.
The U.S. market, as one of the largest advertising markets globally, continues to see stable user growth despite challenges such as policy uncertainty, which also leads to continued increases in ad revenue. Many international brands have recognized TikTok’s young user base’s strong consumption potential and high acceptance of new products, increasing their advertising investments on TikTok. These brands are no longer limited to traditional advertising formats but are actively exploring marketing approaches that align with the platform’s characteristics. For example, by collaborating with influencers to promote products, influencers leverage their influence with followers to convey product information more naturally and vividly, achieving marketing results far exceeding traditional ads. Meanwhile, creative short video ads have also become an important choice for brand marketing, as these ads are short, engaging, and capable of capturing user attention quickly, effectively boosting brand exposure and sales.
E-commerce Business: A Rapidly Rising New Growth Curve
While advertising business continues to grow steadily, TikTok’s e-commerce business has risen rapidly, becoming an important new growth curve for revenue. In 2024, TikTok Shop’s total goods transaction volume (GMV) surpassed $30 billion, thanks to the continuous improvement of its e-commerce ecosystem and the gradual development of user shopping habits. Southeast Asia, particularly countries like Thailand and Vietnam, saw outstanding performances, with GMV contributions accounting for over 50%. The major reasons include a large young population, improving internet penetration, and vast e-commerce potential, with the platform also launching promotional activities tailored to local festivals, further driving consumption.
Beauty and personal care products contributed 22.5% of the global GMV, becoming a “top performer.” This is closely related to the large number of beauty influencers and content related to beauty on the platform, where influencers sharing product information and usage tips effectively stimulated users’ purchasing desires. Many beauty brands have quickly opened up the market by collaborating with influencers to try and recommend products.
In the U.S. market, TikTok Shop’s GMV reached about $9 billion, as the platform continuously optimized its services, improved logistics efficiency, and collaborated with local brands and suppliers to enrich product categories. In mature markets like the UK and Australia, revenue growth exceeded 50%, and profits increased by twofold. By integrating short videos and live-streaming sales, TikTok bridged the gap between content and commerce. Users can click to buy directly, and the “see it, buy it” model lowers purchase barriers and improves conversion rates, significantly driving e-commerce business development.
Global Expansion: Consolidating Foundations and Expanding Territory
TikTok’s stellar performance in 2024 cannot be separated from its careful global layout, consolidating its presence in existing markets while expanding into new territories, building a vast and stable user network and business system.
In 2024, TikTok’s global monthly active users (MAU) reached 1.6 billion, a 10% increase from 2023, ranking fifth among global social platforms. The U.S., as the largest single market, saw user numbers surpass 135 million, and despite policy uncertainties, user growth remained stable due to rich content and a good user experience.
Emerging markets such as Indonesia and Brazil saw strong user growth. These markets, with large populations and fast-growing internet penetration, have considerable room for social apps to expand. TikTok tailored content and features according to local characteristics, such as incorporating local cultural elements in Indonesia to encourage unique short video creation, which attracted a large number of users.
Despite regulatory pressures in certain countries, TikTok’s user engagement remains very high, with average daily usage time exceeding 58 minutes. This is attributed to its diverse content ecosystem, covering areas like lifestyle, entertainment, knowledge, and education, which meets a wide range of users’ interests and strengthens user dependency and loyalty.
TikTok has provided core momentum for ByteDance’s overseas business growth, with ByteDance’s overseas business revenue increasing by 63% year-on-year in 2024, accounting for 25% of total revenue, setting a historical high. TikTok has enhanced ByteDance’s global brand awareness, laying the foundation for its other applications to enter overseas markets and accumulating experience and resources to support the expansion of other businesses abroad, creating a synergistic development environment.
Conclusion
In summary, TikTok’s outstanding performance in 2024 is the result of the combined influence of its advertising business, e-commerce business, and global expansion efforts. This is not only an important milestone in its development but also provides new insights and directions for the development of the entire social app industry. In the future, with continuous technological advancements and market changes, TikTok will face more opportunities and challenges, but we have every reason to believe that it will continue to write its own remarkable chapters in the global social app market.
