TikTok To Enter Game Market

TikTok has already been testing its game service in Vietnam and plans to roll it out to the rest of Southeast Asia.

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TikTok is making a move into gaming. | © ByteDance

TikTok is the fastest growing social media service in the world and has caused a tectonic shift as rival services like Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube pivot to short-form mobile-friendly video content. Whether they successfully stem TikTok's meteoric rise has yet to be seen, but what is in no doubt is that TikTok is where the trends start, new ideas flow, and where stars like Bella Poarch, are born.

And very soon, it may also be the place where you game too, as ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the app, has been testing games out in Vietnam with plans to later release them globally.

TikTok Adds Games

TikTok users will soon be able to play games on the service according to a report in Reuters (May 19).

Currently being tested in Vietnam with plans to roll out to the rest of Southeast Asia later this year, the games are currently simple HTML5 mini-games from ByteDance’s own catalog of titles. There is currently no timetable for when games might arrive in Europe and the Americas.

And while the idea of mobile gaming in this form is nothing new, according to the report, TikTok has ambitions beyond what is currently seen in these in-app minigames.

Gaming is nothing new for ByteDance with Douyin users, the Chinese version of TikTok, being able to play games since 2019.

Last year, the company also purchased Moonton Technology, a Shanghai-based gaming studio, best known for the hugely popular Mobile Legends: Bang Bang MOBA.

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