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TikTok has already taken over the world. Millions of people (including me …) spend too many hours in the popular video-sharing app watching thousands of small, often very fun videos created by other users. And now, seemingly trying to suck out the few remaining hours of your day, the company behind it is currently testing how to integrate games directly into the app.
The news comes from a Reuters report released yesterday detailing plans by TikTok and parent company ByteDance to add video games to the video-sharing service. And you may not have to wait too long to play games on it. Users in Vietnam have reportedly had access to games for some time as the app uses its younger, technology audience there as a test market.
Reuters sources say TikTok plans to launch games in more parts of Southeast Asia later this year.
Technically, TikTok has introduced several small games in the past, including a Zynga game called Disco Loco 3D. But this upcoming expansion of the platform’s gaming capabilities will draw games from ByteDance’s already large library of mobile diversions. Meanwhile, another subsidiary of this company recently announced Marvel Snap, a free card game from the creators of Hearthstone. So there may be a future in which these types of larger, more advanced mobile games become widespread through TikTok itself.
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Just in case you’re wondering how the company will make money from all this, TikTok games are reportedly going to include commercials; ByteDance will collect a percentage of the profits, and the rest will go to developers. No details were shared on how this split would fall apart.
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As Reuters notes, people who use Douyin on ByteDance, the separate Chinese version of TikTok, are playing games in their 2019 version of the video-sharing app.
TikTok is just the latest example of a non-gaming company trying to bring some games into its already popular applications and services. Netflix has recently started adding games to its app as part of a bigger boost to gaming.
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