TikTok estimated to generate $88.1m in revenue in August despite US troubles

It attributed the year-on-year growth to the strong performance of TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, which accounted for about 85% of the app’s August revenue. Meanwhile, the US market, being its second-largest revenue source, took up 7.8%.

The app’s August revenue, however, represented a decline when compared with the months of July, June, and May, with US$102.5 million, US$90.7 million, and US$95.7 million, respectively.

The drop came as TikTok’s major rivals enjoyed jumps in user numbers in the wake of the US ban of TikTok.

According to data from SensorTower, among the top five short-video apps in the US, TikTok accounted for 76% of total category downloads in January, while it’s four competitors collectively represented 24%. In August, the collective download share of the competitors climbed to 44%, shrinking TikTok’s market share by 20 percent in the process.

As TikTok encounters problems abroad, its parent company ByteDance is exploring other opportunities to expand its potential revenue streams. Reuters recently reported that the firm acquired a Chinese third-party payment service, UIPay, to leverage its domestic payment capability.