TikTok owner ByteDance‘s total revenue grew to $58 billion USD in 2021, up 70% year-over-year (YoY) from 2020 — reports Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
According to the publication’s sources, the numbers have as of yet only been disclosed to a small group of employees at an internal meeting held by the company this week.
Even though ByteDance’s revenue rose significantly in 2021, growth slowed down as compared to 2020. In 2020, the social media giant’s revenue was up more than a whopping 100% to $34.3 billion.
The decreased growth is primarily a result of the Chinese government establishing new antitrust rules that govern how a wide range of tech companies in the country, including Beijing-based ByteDance, operate and interact with their users.
ByteDance held on to the second position in China’s online advertising market last year, claiming a market share of 21%, according to a recent report published by Interactive Marketing Lab Zhongguancun. Online ad sales in China only grew 9.3% in 2021, as compared to 13.8% in 2020.
In addition to TikTok, other apps run by ByteDance also include Chinese TikTok-equivalent Douyin, news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, and video-streaming platform Xigua.
According to app tracker Sensor Tower, users spent approximately $2.3 billion on the TikTok app and the iOS version of Douyin over the course of 2021, up 77% YoY. TikTok also became the most-visited website of the year for 2021, yet another achievement for parent company ByteDance.
