More TikToks? Consumer Apps Developed in China Find Customers Overseas

For years, it seemed China’s mighty consumer app giants couldn’t figure out how to expand overseas. Alibaba, Tencent and many others famously failed. That changed when ByteDance turned TikTok into a global hit.

But it’s not just TikTok. China’s software engineers and product managers are starting to crack the code and are beginning to rival Silicon Valley in developing consumer apps for overseas customers. For example, Asia Innovations Group, a startup backed by Kleiner Perkins and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, earlier this year sold equity to investors at a pre-investment valuation of $2 billion after tailoring social media apps built in Beijing to emerging markets in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, India and Latin America. The eight-year-old company is likely to roughly double annual revenue to more than $400 million this year from subscriptions and by taking a cut of virtual gifting through its livestreaming and dating apps, according to two people with direct knowledge.