19-Jun-19, TechCrunch
Popular short-form video app TikTok has been slowly ramping up its advertising strategy this year as it increases its focus on monetization. However, the company still generates a smaller portion of its revenue from in-app purchases - and that number hit a high of USD9 million in May-19. That represents 500% year-over-year growth from the USD1.5 million spent in May-18.
%20TechCrunch.png "TikTok hit USD9 mn in in app purchases, up 500pc (c) TechCrunch")
Image: TechCrunch
Arguably, TikTok hasn’t put much emphasis on its in-app purchase strategy. For now, the Beijing-based app owned by ByteDance is more heavily focused on driving user growth. It knows that putting some of its best features behind a paywall could potentially limit user adoption and engagement - especially as TikTok looks for growth in emerging markets like India, where it recently said it has 120 million monthly active users.
In India, the app overtook Facebook as the most downloaded social networking app in the first quarter of the year, and is now looking to pull in more advertisers. Brands like Pepsi, Snapdeal, Myntra, Shaadi.com and Shopclues have signed on to advertise.