ByteDance's revenue increased by over 35%, Douyin e-commerce sales growth rate dropped to 20%, and advertising business costs rose by 60%

According to The Information, ByteDance achieved a 35% revenue growth in the first half of 2024, totaling approximately $73 billion, mainly driven by advertising and e-commerce revenue from apps like Douyin and Toutiao within China. Additionally, revenue growth in the international market exceeded 60%.

This growth rate has slowed down compared to last year.

Notably, TikTok, as the primary source of ByteDance's overseas revenue, continues to perform strongly in advertising and other businesses, unaffected even by the potential US ban.

Based on data from QuestMobile, the size of the Chinese internet advertising market reached RMB 351.4 billion in the first half of 2024, with an 11.8% year-on-year growth rate. Among advertisers, 9.4% maintained the same number of media placements as the same period last year, while 53.4% increased their media placements.

For ByteDance, the growth of its advertising revenue was once a significant driving force behind the company's bold exploration in multiple emerging fields, including gaming. With the continuous growth of advertising revenue, ByteDance not only surpassed Alibaba in China but also became the third-largest advertising company globally. However, this driving force is gradually weakening.

According to LatePost, in the first three quarters of 2024, ByteDance's quarterly advertising revenue in China fell from a previous growth rate of around 40% to less than 17% year-on-year, and it failed to meet its set performance targets in the past two quarters.

Data shows that since the beginning of the year, the sales growth rate on the Douyin e-commerce platform has steadily declined from 60% to less than 20% by September. As merchants' sales decrease, they correspondingly reduce their advertising budgets.

To address this issue, ByteDance has taken a series of measures, including investing over RMB 30 billion this year in subsidies for merchants and users across multiple platforms, with JuLiang Engine alone contributing over RMB 10 billion. However, these efforts have failed to effectively improve the situation, instead leading to a 60% year-on-year increase in advertising business costs.

Editor: Ding Li