Worldwide, TikTok rose to the No. 2 spot in app downloads in November 2018, according to SensorTower, behind WhatsApp and ahead of Messenger, Facebook and Instagram.
Though the app has natural appeal with teens, it’s also catching on with people older than that. A recent article from The Washington Post detailed how nurses and members of the military have taken to the app, creating their own TikTok groups to share videos.
What Do We Know About TikTok's Chinese Version?
In China, Douyin is very popular. In July it had 300 million monthly active users and 150 million daily active users, according to China Daily.
Parent company ByteDance has deep pockets and big ambitions to grow. In October, SoftBank and other investors poured $3 billion in the company, according to Bloomberg. Subsequently ByteDance was reported to be raising over $1 billion for its own investments in media and artificial intelligence (AI).
What About Advertising?
TikTok has no paid advertising yet, but some brands have used it for influencer marketing campaigns or to publish their own videos. In the meantime, the app is making money in other ways—user spending on in-app purchases increased 275% between October 2017 and October 2018, to $3.5 million, according to Sensor Tower. Users can purchase emoji and digital gifts to share with TikTok users during live streams.
Douyin does contain paid video ads and is part of a growing economy of short-form video apps that were expected to bring in an estimated RMB14 billion ($2 billion) in marketing and advertising revenues in 2018, according to a forecast published by iResearch Consulting Group.