TikTok has reported a surge in turnover to $1 Billion across its operations in international markets including the UK and Europe last year, as trend setting teens and young adults continue to make the platform the hottest social app of the moment.
Turnover soared by 477% from $171 Million in 2020 to $990 Million last year with the Europe accounting for more than 80% of the total, In the UK the turnover jumped from $51.8 Million to $279 Million, making TikTok a bigger advertising house than Snapchat and almost in levels with Twitter, according to data from Insider Intelligence.
The company landed its billionth monthly user last year, four years after its global launch, half the time it took Facebook, YouTube or Instagram, and three years faster than WhatsApp. Analysts at data.ai have said the company has since passed the 1.5 Billion user mark.
Meta “owned” Facebook, which TikTok is beating in the battle for the most coveted demographic of 18-to-25-year-old social media users, has launched a copycat product called Reels which is integrated into instagram to defend its turf.
TikTok continues to be dogged by suspicions that its ownership by Chinese company ByteDance means it could pose a national security threat to every country in operates in.
Donald Trump’s administration attempted to force ByteDance to sell its international operations to a US firm, but this petered out after he lost the US presidential election.
Two years ago India, one of the world’s biggest markets for social media usage, banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok.
