© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: TikTok app is seen on a smartphone on this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Picture
By Josh Ye and Phuong Nguyen
HONG KONG/HANOI (Reuters) – TikTok has been conducting checks so customers can play video games on its video-sharing app in Vietnam, a part of plans for a serious push into gaming, 4 individuals accustomed to the matter mentioned.
That includes video games on its platform would increase promoting income in addition to the period of time customers spend on the app – one of many world’s hottest with greater than 1 billion month-to-month lively customers.
Boasting a tech-savvy inhabitants with 70% of its residents underneath the age of 35, Vietnam is a lovely marketplace for social media platforms equivalent to TikTok, Meta Platforms Inc’s Fb (NASDAQ:) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc’s YouTube and Google.
TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, plans to roll out gaming extra broadly in Southeast Asia, the individuals mentioned. That transfer might come as early because the third quarter, mentioned two of them.
The sources declined to be recognized as the knowledge has but to be publicly disclosed.
A TikTok consultant mentioned the corporate has examined bringing HTML5 video games, a standard type of minigame, to its app via tie-ups with third-party recreation builders and studios equivalent to Zynga (NASDAQ:) Inc, however declined to touch upon its plans for Vietnam or its broader gaming ambitions.
“We’re at all times methods to counterpoint our platform and commonly take a look at new options and integrations that deliver worth to our group,” the consultant mentioned in an emailed assertion to Reuters.
ByteDance didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Reuters was not in a position to be taught TikTok’s plans for rolling out gaming options in different markets. Though TikTok customers can watch video games being streamed, in most areas they don’t seem to be in a position to play video games throughout the TikTok app. In the US, solely a few video games seem like obtainable.
