TikTok reportedly wants to add games to its app, is testing them in Vietnam

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By Oliver Haslam
published

Tiktok On iPhone
Tiktok On iPhone (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • TikTok is reportedly testing games in its mobile apps.
  • TikTok users in Vietnam are currently able to play games.
  • Ads are likely to be attached to the games when they roll out elsewhere.

Video-based social network TikTok is reportedly keen to add mini-games to its app across multiple platforms with the company already testing them in Vietnam.

According to a new Reuters report, the addition of games would allow TikTok to earn more ad revenue, something that is never a bad thing when that's your entire business model.

TikTok has been conducting tests so users can play games on its video-sharing app in Vietnam, part of plans for a major push into gaming, four people familiar with the matter said.Featuring games on its platform would boost advertising revenue as well as the amount of time users spend on the app - one of the world's most popular with more than 1 billion monthly active users.

The same report says that sources believe TikTok will roll games out more widely in South Asia, with the company keen to pull from parent company ByteDance's growing collection of gaming titles. A statement from a spokesperson didn't confirm the report as such, but did mention that TikTok has been testing HTML5 games with partners that include Zynga – the company behind a swathe of Facebook and mobile games.

TikTok isn't the first unexpected company to move into games, of course. Netflix has already done something similar, although TikTok's decision is likely to be more about selling ads against its games rather than driving pure user engagement. Reuters notes that even as things stand, TikTok is likely to see ad revenue triple to $11 billion this year.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.