Data centres could be an important infrastructure component to support ByteDance’s growth in Vietnam.
A recent development points to this. TikTok has been conducting tests so users can play games on its video-sharing app in Vietnam, part of plans for a major push into gaming, according to a report by Reuters.
The report which quoted four people familiar with the matter pointed out that TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, also plans to roll out gaming more widely in Southeast Asia. This, in turn, has the potential to increase data centre usage in Vietnam, which has a a tech-savvy population with 70% of its citizens under the age of 35.
Vietnam is one of the fastest economic growing countries in Asia, with per capita GDP expected to increase approximately 1.6 times in the six years from 2020 to 2026, making it a promising market expected to continue its growth. Featuring games on TikTok’s platform would boost advertising revenue as well as the amount of time users spend on the app – one of the world’s most popular with more than 1 billion monthly active users. The sources declined to be identified as the information has yet to be publicly disclosed.
A TikTok representative said the company has tested bringing HTML5 games, a common form of minigame, to its app through tie-ups with third-party game developers and studios such as Zynga Inc (ZNGA.O). But it declined to comment on its plans for Vietnam or its broader gaming ambitions.
“We’re always looking at ways to enrich our platform and regularly test new features and integrations that bring value to our community,” the representative said in an emailed statement to Reuters. ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters was not able to learn TikTok’s plans for rolling out gaming features in other markets. Although TikTok users can watch games being streamed, in most regions they are not able to play games within the TikTok app.
Gaming & Data Centres
Fortnite, the most popular online game by Epic Games boasts over 200 million players. According to industry watchers, Fortnite relies on 12 AWS data centres with 24 availability zones to support the load.
For example, when compared to the smallest load, the peak load is 10 times larger and the total amount of data rises by two petabytes per month. The scenario in the gaming environment varies considerably based on the actions players take. The game generates over 92 million events in a minute, and the total amount of data rises by two petabytes per month.
“World of Warcraft” is another famous game that heavily relies on data centres. According to a documentary on YouTube, which talked about the data centres of the game, there are over 17 data centres around the world to support 100 GB data it generates every second.
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