On November 5th, according to media reports, in the first half of 2024, ByteDance's overall revenue increased by over 35%, reaching approximately $73 billion. International market revenue grew by over 60%, reaching about $17 billion, mainly driven by TikTok's revenue.

This means that ByteDance's revenue in the first half of 2024 not only leads by a large margin domestically but also approaches Meta in the international market – the company's revenue for the first half of the year was $75.527 billion.

ByteDance did not respond to inquiries from "Star Daily" regarding the above financial data.

ByteDance's international market revenue mainly comes from advertising revenue brought by TikTok. According to the latest data from OnlyAccount.io, in the first half of 2024, the overseas version of TikTok, Douyin, had reached 0.4882 billion downloads, the second-highest since TikTok's launch.

With the continuous expansion of TikTok's user base and the increase in user engagement, its advertising market also shows a rapidly growing trend. A ByteDance insider told the "Star Daily" reporter, "TikTok's advertising growth rate is exceptionally high".

According to Media Radar data, TikTok's advertising revenue has been increasing every quarter in 2023, with last year's total annual revenue reaching $3.8 billion. The categories and proportions of advertisements on the TikTok platform are also worth noting, with media and entertainment advertisements accounting for the highest share at 30%, contributing $1 billion in revenue to TikTok from these advertisers last year.

In the domestic market, ByteDance's revenue mainly comes from advertising and e-commerce revenue brought by apps like Douyin and Toutiao. However, the growth rate in the first half of the year slowed slightly compared to the same period last year, where revenue growth exceeded 40% in the first half of the previous year.

The reason is not hard to understand, the main reason is that the e-commerce business has started to decline. A large part of ByteDance's advertising revenue comes from merchants' advertising. Merchants are willing to advertise more on the premise of business growth.

But in recent years, various industries have been in a price war, competing for the lowest prices. For e-commerce platforms, the reason why low prices can become a core strategy is based on the fact that low prices can bring in more user traffic, thereby driving orders, GMV, and profit growth. Once this logic is broken, the platform must make adjustments quickly.

Currently, the sales growth rate of Douyin e-commerce has dropped from over 60% at the beginning of the year to less than 20% in September, while the advertising revenue driven by Douyin's life services is still less than 5% of the large cap. In these two industries, Douyin Group faces fierce competition from Taotian, Pinduoduo, jd.com, Meituan, Kuaishou, and even Xiaohongshu.

Earlier this year, Douyin e-commerce adjusted its target priority, with price competitiveness ranking first, followed by order rate, monthly active users, and GMV ranking last. However, the feedback later was that the rapid decline in GMV growth in the first half of the year exceeded expectations.

Therefore, after the end of this year's '618' promotion, Taotian and Douyin successively announced the weakening of 'absolute low prices'. Douyin e-commerce adjusted its operational target priority, deciding not to prioritize 'price competitiveness' anymore, and will focus on pursuing GMV growth in the second half of the year.

Currently, the total number of users on Douyin has exceeded 0.8 billion, with a daily active user count surpassing 0.7 billion. TikTok, which is highly popular overseas, is also facing pressure from various sides. ByteDance, known for 'achieving wonders with great efforts', is showing signs of nearing its ceiling.

With the slowdown in advertising revenue growth and the uncertain situation of TikTok overseas, ByteDance has now shifted its business strategy focus to AI. Over the past three years, its main theme of business adjustment has been 'lean and mean', with PICO, gaming, Feishu, and other businesses experiencing varying degrees of contraction. Large models are a new business that ByteDance has invested heavily in over the past three years.

However, the large model industry both domestically and internationally is currently in a fiercely competitive and heavily invested 'money-burning phase'. Whether ByteDance's strong focus on AI this time can produce wonders remains to be seen, only time will tell.