2022 will be the year of TikTok. A few months ago I made a prediction that TikTok will become the top-grossing app in the U.S. App Store in early 2022. And, guess what happened this morning!
If you look at the top-grossing list, the one that includes apps and games, you'll see TikTok is the leader. They took the lead away from YouTube, which enjoyed the top position most consistently for quite a long time.
It's possible, and likely, that we'll see the two go back and forth for a bit, but I still think TikTok will outpace YouTube consistently to become the highest earner in a way that YouTube won't be able to come back from very soon.
It's not that YouTube is doing anything wrong, and I don't have anything against YouTube at all. In fact, I'm investing a lot of time and effort into our YouTube channel. But TikTok's ability to monetize its user base is second to none.
And because all that revenue we're tracking is users paying creators, you know we'll see even more creators going TikTok to earn money which will be making it even stronger.
December saw a curious split: downloads dropped 2% while revenue sat at $1.3B. ChatGPT and TikTok dominated both charts as the mobile industry enters a new maturity phase.
Wall Street bet $2 billion on Polymarket, and downloads surged 1,172% in December. The prediction market banned in 2022 is now where Wall Street looks for signals.