China Supremacy: TikTok's Ad Revenue to Surpass Twitter and Snapchat Combined

Lucas NolanApril 13, 2022

Chinese-owned social media app TikTok is set to triple its ad revenue in 2022 to more than $11 billion, totaling more ad sales than Twitter and Snapchat combined.

Reuters reports that TikTok, owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance, is set to reach $11 billion in advertising revenue this year, more than Twitter and Snapchat’s advertising revenue combined. TikTok currently boasts more than 1 billion users and is one of the most popular social media apps in the world.

ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming (STR/Getty)

Spectators and participants fill Tiananmen Square during 50th anniversary celebration for the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The annual National Day holiday takes place on October 1st. (Photo by David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images)

Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at Insider Intelligence, commented on the company’s continued success, stating: “TikTok’s user base has exploded in the past couple of years, and the amount of time users spend on the app is extraordinary.”

Twitter estimates to generate around $5.58 billion in advertising revenue this year, while Snapchat is expected to bring in $4.86 billion. Earlier this year, Breitbart News reported that users spent around $2.3 billion on the popular video-sharing app TikTok in 2021. This includes transactions made on the iOS version of TikTok’s Chinese counterpart app Douyin which is more heavily censored in order to align with Chinese law.

TikTok enjoyed 77 percent year-on-year growth up from $1.3 billion in 2020. Consumer spending on the app reached $824.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, more than double the $382.4 million generated by the app during the same period in 2020.

Breitbart News previously reported that despite TikTok’s attempts to publicly distance itself from China following scrutiny over the company’s relations with the Chinese government, insiders state that much of the company’s direction still comes from ByteDance staff in Beijing.

In an August 2020 lawsuit, TikTok stated: “TikTok is not and has never been offered in China,” arguing that it was unfair for the Trump administration to attempt to ban the app. In November, ByteDance reorganized into six different business units, making a clear distinction between TikTok and its Chinese products.

But according to six current and former TikTok employees, the firm was still largely under the influence of ByteDance’s Beijing headquarters. Four current and former staffers told Business Insider that discussions relating to TikTok’s products often require calls with employees at ByteDance’s China HQ and final product decisions are regularly made in Beijing.