TikTok's European revenue grew 545% in 2020

TikTok's revenue in Europe grew 545% to $170.8 million last year, according to documents filed with Britain's Companies House on Monday , with the sharp increase in revenue mainly driven by advertisers increasing their spending on the platform .

The filing, made with Companies House, shows TikTok investing heavily in expanding its European operations as it looks to take on rivals such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snap.

" As our community grows , we've seen significant revenue growth , and we 'll continue to invest aggressively to build a strong foundation for the long-term success of the platform , " a TikTok spokesperson said .

In addition to employees being TikTok's largest expense, TikTok also spent $344.9 million on sales and marketing in 2020 , up from $110.3 million in 2019, according to the documents .

TikTok's popularity has also boomed over the past three years , and last week it announced that it has 1 billion monthly active users on its platform , up 45% from July 2020.

TikTok said it had about 55 million global users as of January 2018. That number grew to more than 271 million by December 2018 and 507 million by December 2019. The company reported nearly 700 million monthly active users last summer.

But TikTok is aware that this growth may not last forever. And it has already noted in the " Business Risks " section that it faces " competition from internet companies that operate content-based social platforms . " Indeed , Facebook and Snap are TikTok's biggest competitors , both vying for advertising dollars.

Some people also worry that TikTok's so-called 996 culture will turn many people away from working for the company. But TikTok's European headcount is still increasing significantly.

“ Like any fast-growing startup , employees work hard at TikTok and some functions occasionally have urgent off-hours , but we absolutely do not have a ‘996’ policy , ” a spokesperson told CNBC in May.

They added : “ Teams like User Support or Security whose work requires 24/7 coverage and staggered on-call hours allow for continued service for our customers. As our workforce continues to scale , after-hours requests are the exception , not the norm. ”

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