How does TikTok make money? Australia vs Asia explained

1 | The power of AI-enhanced advertising

TikTok’s cash engine roars loudest through advertising, and it’s easy to see why. Skippable in-feed clips, branded hashtag challenges and TopView takeovers together pumped out roughly US$14 billion in 2024 (about 77% of the platform’s revenue) and analysts tip the tally to double by the end of 2025.

In Australia, some 350,000 brands already jostle for Gen Z’s meme-powered attention, while media buyers prove they can add another 58% of incremental reach simply by pairing Spark Ads with the same spots they run on linear TV.

Across Asia, the scale is mind-bending: Indonesia alone logs more than 125 million monthly users and advertisers lean heavily on TikTok’s Smart+ AI to slice customer acquisition costs into the single digits.

Cross-border K-pop launches in Thailand and Vietnam now roll out in days, not months, because the machine is doing the localisation grunt work for them.