TikTok revealed stunning monthly viewership figures “of up to trillions,” amid developments in the United States sale of the viral yet controversial Chinese-owned video-sharing app.
Speaking as part of a global keynote discussion that was live-streamed to event attendees on Monday, September 14, TikTok’s Global Head of Music Ole Obermann shared some insight into the company’s runnings.
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“We’ve evolved a lot as a digital business and are now getting into the trillions in terms of video views,” Obermann said, adding that the app was also “short of a billion monthly active users.”
“The beauty of TikTok is that it’s incredibly democratic. There does not need to be any history for a particular song or video to get picked up on one’s feed,” Obermann added. “An artist from [his or her] bedroom can create and compose a beautiful track, upload it and watch it go from zero to a hundred million views in a matter of days — that’s a very unique aspect of TikTok and an incredibly democratic way of matching the right content with the right fans. It changes the game and really flattens the landscape.”
Obermann however, did not address or touch on speculation surrounding the app’s new partnership with California-based software database giant Oracle.
TikTok and Oracle are said to become business partners in the U.S, reported the Wall Street Journal, citing inside sources. This, after the tech giant reportedly won the highly-awaited bid under a politically-charged deal meant to satisfy the administration of President Donald Trump.
In August, Trump declared TikTok a national emergency, putting pressure on Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company.
Terms surrounding the exact nature of the deal currently remain unclear but it was not described as an outright sale, reported CNN. Chinese state media also denied the deal with Oracle, citing inside sources who said that ByteDance “would have to obtain a licence from the Chinese government before proceeding with TikTok’s sale to an American company.”
U.S. software giant Microsoft also confirmed on Sunday that it was out of the TikTok race and announced the rejection of its sales bid.
During the 35-minute discussion, Obermann shared the app’s direction and its global plans for expansion in Asia, where it intends to spend billions investing in Singapore, adding hundreds of jobs in the Southeast Asian city-state after setbacks in the United Kingdom and the U.S., and a total ban in India.
“Audiences in Asia are a lot further down the road in terms of their engagement with social media and short-form video,” the London-based music chief said.
With thousands of artists signing up to create music and videos for their fanbases, Obermann added that he saw huge growth and revenue potential when live-streaming through apps took off in China, a feature that is slowing but steadily catching on with the rest of the world.
“There may be some cultural differences but it’s a real sign of what’s to come,” he said.
