On December 20, media reports revealed that ByteDance's revenue for 2023 increased by 30% to $110 billion, with TikTok's e-commerce business emerging as a significant growth driver for the company.
This surge in revenue indicates that ByteDance may surpass Tencent in 2023, closing in on Meta. Tencent is projected to achieve a revenue of $86 billion this year, while Meta is expected to generate $133 billion.
Analysts attribute over 30% of ByteDance's revenue growth to the contribution of TikTok's e-commerce business. Insiders claim that TikTok's e-commerce Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in Southeast Asia has exceeded $13 billion, with Indonesia contributing over $4 billion and Thailand around $3.5 billion. The two-month ban in Indonesia reportedly resulted in a loss of at least $1 billion.
TikTok has set a GMV target of $50 billion for 2024, more than doubling this year's goal of $20 billion.
Additionally, advertising revenue is identified as a key factor in ByteDance's significantly higher revenue growth compared to other internet companies. Although TikTok's overseas business accounts for only 20% of the group's total revenue, it has managed to reduce Google and Facebook's advertising revenue in the United States to below 50%.
E-commerce advertising forms the bulk of TikTok's ad revenue. In the first half of 2023, global TikTok advertising was dominated by e-commerce ads at 77.9%, followed by app ads at 15.3%, and game ads at 6.8%. In major revenue-generating countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, the proportion of e-commerce ad revenue even reached around 85%.
Third-party data shows that TikTok's monthly active users reached 1.4 billion in 2022. Conservatively estimated, TikTok's global active users are expected to reach 1.8 billion by the end of 2023. Advertisers are drawn to TikTok primarily because most of its users are young, aged between 18 and 34, and exhibit high user engagement.
This might not be the first time ByteDance's revenue has surpassed Tencent. Reports indicate that ByteDance's revenue in the second quarter of this year grew by over 40% to $29 billion, with a first-half revenue of about $54 billion. In contrast, Tencent reported a revenue of approximately 299.2 billion yuan (about $41.3 billion) for the first half of the year.
Previously, it was reported that ByteDance's revenue in 2022 grew by over 38% to $85.2 billion, with a net profit exceeding $20 billion. Tencent's revenue for 2022 was around 554.6 billion yuan, approximately $76.6 billion. This suggests that ByteDance may have already surpassed Tencent Holdings in terms of revenue in 2022.
Data shows that ByteDance's revenue from markets outside China last year was $16 billion, a significant increase from $6.5 billion in 2021 and $1.2 billion in 2020. Last year, ByteDance's overseas market revenue accounted for 19% of the company's total revenue of $85 billion.
