TikTok Said to Bring Gaming to Video-Sharing App

TikTok has been conducting assessments 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 acquainted with the matter mentioned.

Featuring video games on its platform would enhance promoting income in addition to the period of time customers spend on the app — one of many world’s hottest with multiple billion month-to-month energetic customers.

Boasting a tech-savvy inhabitants with 70 p.c of its residents beneath the age of 35, Vietnam is a pretty marketplace for social media platforms similar to TikTok, Meta Platforms’s Facebook and Alphabet’s YouTube and Google.

TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, plans to roll out gaming extra extensively 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 typical type of minigame, to its app by tie-ups with third-party sport builders and studios similar to Zynga, however declined to touch upon its plans for Vietnam or its broader gaming ambitions.

“We’re at all times taking a look at methods to enrich our platform and often check new options and integrations that carry 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 ready to be taught TikTok’s plans for rolling out gaming options in different markets. Although TikTok customers can watch video games being streamed, in most areas they don’t seem to be ready to play video games inside the TikTok app. In the United States, solely a few video games seem to be obtainable.

© Thomson Reuters 2022