TikTok In-App Purchases
TikTok might be under assault by the U.S. government, banned in India and not even available in China, but in February it had the highest in-app earnings in the world. And it wasn’t even close: TikTok’s $189 million from in-app revenue almost doubled the next-most-profitable app, YouTube, which only reached $111 million.
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In what is starting to be a bit of a broken record, TikTok was also the highest earning app in January and December of 2023, according to mobile analytics vendors AppFigures. And November and September, too. In fact, it’s been the top-earning global app for at least 15 months running.
TikTok has pretty much two sources of revenue. One is advertising, which isn’t covered in this report (but is very lucrative as well). The second is in-app purchases: people buy coins for about $0.02 each (the minimum buy is 65 coins at a time). Those coins can then be given to creators during live-streams, as tips in comments, or used for yourself to boost a personal post and make it more visible to other people.
TikTok may be routing around the App Store to save money on commissions. According to new findings, the ByteDance-owned social video app is presenting some of its users with a link to a website for purchasing the coins used for tipping digital creators. Typically, these coins are bought via in-app purchase, which requires a 30% commission paid to Apple.
The feature may be hidden from most users, either by design or because it’s only shown to users in a specific group, like testers or high spenders. In any event, those who do have access to the new option are seeing a screen that encourages them to “recharge” — that is, buy more coins — via tiktok.com.
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In some cases, users are shown a screen that includes a message such as “Try recharging on tiktok.com to avoid in-app service fees” followed by a “Try now” link.
As she notes, this does not seem to comply with Apple’s guidelines for external purchase links.
Previously:
- No Alternative Payments in Louisiana
- Apple Going After Patreon
- Apple Pressures ByteDance and Tencent Over IAP
- StoreKit Purchase Link Entitlement for United States
- Apple Rejects Spotify Update That E-mails External Purchase Info
- Bypassing IAP With In-Game Currencies
- External Link for Reader Apps
- Super Follows and IAP
- Fanhouse vs. Apple
- Epic Direct Payment
- New App Store Review Guidelines: Gifts, Face ID, ARKit
- Apple Wants 30% of Tips From Chinese Chat Apps
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Saying there's no TikTok in China is like saying there's no Burger King in Australia, or that Moana has never been shown in Sweden.
The TikTok logo makes som uch more sense once you know the actual name is Douyin. Just look at this and tell me it isn't TikTok but in China: https://www.douyin.com/search/Harbin?aid=693ad40b-9982-4110-aa8a-13e36642f072&modal_id=7438947467925736715&type=general
@Kristoffer
It’s a long story. Decades ago, Burger King signed a contract with an Australian businessman, Jack Cowin (the founder of Hungry Jack’s), granting him exclusive rights to their intellectual property in Australia. Over time, Burger King regretted this decision and attempted to re-enter the Australian market by opening Burger King-branded stores directly.
This led to a major legal battle where Hungry Jack’s sued Burger King for breaching their agreement. The courts ruled in favor of Hungry Jack’s, ordering Burger King to cease operations in Australia and honor the exclusivity agreement. As part of the outcome, Burger King left the country and agreed never to return.
While Hungry Jack’s uses the Whopper name and a logo inspired by Burger King’s, the rest of the brand — its menu, marketing, and operations — is entirely different and unique to Burger King.
"The TikTok logo makes som uch more sense once you know the actual name is Douyin"
I think people who say that China doesn't have TikTok are aware of Douyin.
Douyin has different content, different moderation, and a different algorithm that decides which kinds of videos to promote. It's not the same app with a different name, it's an entirely different app that serves the same kind of market.
@Matthew Well I'll be damned. Thanks for the explainer.
@Plume I'd say the difference is paper thin personally. It works the same way and does the same thing.
It's not a different app in the same way as Google Maps and GMail are different apps. More of a localized version version of the worlds number one short video platform. Made by the same company, using the same logo.
"I'd say the difference is paper thin personally"
I disagree, because its algorithm is the whole reason why a lot of people want to ban TikTok, and Douyin has a different algorithm that promotes different things.
To elaborate: one of the arguments for banning TikTok is something like "TikTok is a CPP influence operation designed to create discord in democratic countries, and particularly the US." To support that argument, it makes sense to point out that TikTok is banned in China, because China obviously does not want to sow anger and discord in China. Pointing out that Douyin exists does not counter that specific argument for banning TikTok, because it promotes very different things.
I've heard people say that Douyin promotes a lot of educational content, and that may be on average, but to me, it promotes a lot of content showing traditional Chinese craftsmanship, like people making mugs or growing traditional Chinese crops. It's calming, nationalistic stuff. It's a very, very different experience to using TikTok.
They're very much not the same app.
IIRC, the CCP told Douyin to promote educational videos. If not enough are made, I guess you get the traditional Chinese craftmanship instead. The US government could request the same but I don't know whether Americans would still use it afterwards. They might even sue for censorship.
