Attention marketplace: Douyin/TikTok For You feeds create scarce attention; ads take the primary cut; CapCut freemium ($19.99/mo or $179.99/yr Pro list) feeds creators; TikTok Shop / Douyin e-commerce add referral fees (US Shop generally 6%); livestream gifts attach; China still dominates revenue while TikTok scales international — press-reported H1’26 revenue ~$120B with AI spend pressing net profit to ~$20B.
Click any of the 9 blocks below for a plain-language story of how that part of the model works for ByteDance — and how it connects to the others.
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