TikTok is testing an ad-free premium version of its service, which would allow people to use the app without seeing any advertising for $4.99 a month.
Android Authority initially spotted code within the TikTok app that suggested the video-sharing platform might be testing an ad-free premium package. TikTok then confirmed to TechCrunch that it is indeed testing a premium product, in one English-speaking market that is not the US.
Although TikTok premium would in theory be ad-free, users would still be exposed to promotional content that appears within videos uploaded to the platform by creators and influencers. Though that is also true with YouTube Premium and, indeed, when listening to podcasts on Spotify.
TechCrunch notes that TikTok's pilot of a premium product is relatively small-scale at the moment and no decision has yet been made about rolling the product out more widely.
Of course, in the music space TikTok is already in the premium subscriptions business via the TikTok Music service that launched in July.
Kyle Wiggers