According to foreign media reports, TikTok is making a big push into the game field and will add an exclusive label to the platform. This is its first foray into entertainment other than video, and another video platform to expand into gaming after Netflix launched mobile games last year.
TikTok will add a “game” entry on the homepage, and users can directly access the game by clicking on the entry. According to four people familiar with the matter, TikTok will launch a series of mobile games, while supporting manufacturers to place ads, and users can also pay for additional content.
TikTok parent ByteDance has been developing its own games and wants to push them to new platforms, a person familiar with the move said. In China, Douyin introduced ultra-casual games as early as 2019, and achieved outstanding results. For ByteDance, which attaches great importance to the game field, its overseas short video platform TikTok cuts into the game track, which is basically an established event.
In fact, the news of TikTok’s entry into the game track has come to the fore last month. Assaf Sagy, a former McKinsey manager and Intel systems architect in Israel, joined TikTok in 2020 after three years at Snap and was named TikTok’s global head of gaming last month.
“TikTok and gaming are for each other,” Sagy wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the appointment. “TikTok has shown its worth in helping users discover interesting, valuable and popular content. I Looking forward to working closely with all game companies around the world to help TikTok become the core foundation of manufacturers’ marketing strategies.”
According to a previous Reuters report, the channel creation was tested in Vietnam in May. At the time, TikTok quietly rolled out a feature that allowed video creators to link to simple games that netizens could click and operate in a pop-up web browser.
The channel may be available as early as November 2 at the “TikTok Made Me Play It” event. At present, TikTok is also recruiting people around the world.
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/61d45084-b171-4894-ad3b-ac44ef5d0bf6