Reuters said TikTok planned to draw on parent company ByteDance’s suite of games, beginning with minigames that have simple mechanisms and a shorter playing time. It claimed tests had begun in Vietnam. But TikTok told TechCrunch that was inaccurate, saying that Vietnam gaming testing is not something it’s currently doing.
Image Credits: Zynga
Ahead of the Zynga deal, TikTok had also already launched its own game, Garden of Good, built in partnership with nonprofit Feeding America and focused on charitable fundraising. This one felt more like an experiment to see if TikTok users would play an in-app game.
While still a smaller effort today, gaming could grow to become a significant monetization tool for TikTok, if the games end up being ad-supported or later add paid components, like in-app purchases.
In addition to its previously announced efforts to delve into HTML5 games, TechCrunch has also learned TikTok is looking to explore LIVE games in a separate effort.
One LIVE game Watchful uncovered is called Draw & Guess, which is designed specifically to encourage interaction between creators and viewers. In this Pictionary-like game, players are given words that they then draw on the screen, and viewers try to guess what they’re drawing. The correct guesses are shown on the screen.
Watchful also noted the mobile gaming feature may allow screen-sharing, so creators could share their screen with viewers in real time, including their camera, audio, notifications and other alerts. Their games could be shown in either landscape mode or portrait mode, the firm said.
While today, a handful of reverse engineers publicly share details of unannounced, still-in-development features they find in popular consumer apps, Watchful has productized this type of investigation and enhanced it with technology. The company uses a combination of computer vision and flow analysis to identify and emulate app changes. Its differential analysis engine compares application versions using real user data and proprietary computer vision algorithms, it says. The studies are also backed by the firm’s mobile device labs deployed around the world.
Reached for comment, TikTok did not have anything more to share about the LIVE gaming efforts but told us it was a totally unrelated development from the HTML5 games Reuters had described.
Games aren’t the only way TikTok is looking to enhance the TikTok LIVE Platform.
Watchful also flagged another in-development feature that feels like a cross between a game and a virtual gifting experience. It allows users to add a “Treasure Box” to LIVE videos which doles out coins after a timer is up to a random set of users.
Image Credits: TikTok app image via Watchful
It found TikTok was working on the in-app shopping experience, TikTok Shop, which is offered today in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, mainland China, Hong Kong and the U.K. Here, TikTok appears to be looking at adding a shopping bag icon to LIVE shopping videos which, when clicked, opens up a window where viewers can browse through available products with the option to click to add them to a cart for immediate purchase.
Image Credits: TikTok app image via Watchful
TikTok declined to comment on these other LIVE platform plans.
