Quick overview

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AppLovin is ready to develop a social networking platform after the mobile advertising company’s unsuccessful attempt to purchase TikTok’s assets outside of China last year.

A senior AppLovin executive recently described the plans in a Chinese-language podcast, and the company posted a job opening for someone to “architect the digital backbone of our next-generation social platform.”

Giovanni Ge, Chief Product and Engineering Officer, said in The Valley 101 podcast that the move was the complete opposite of Meta Platforms, which initially cultivated a following on Instagram and Facebook before turning it into a revenue stream through advertising.

AppLovin now has an ad placement system after selling a portfolio of games it owned last year, but it primarily places those ads into other businesses.

If the move goes through, Palo Alto-based AppLovin may gain more control over the mobile advertising market and access to user data, putting it in direct competition with social media behemoths like Meta, TikTok, and Snap.

Thanks to its advertising technology, which helps mobile apps and games attract new users and monetize their platforms, AppLovin’s value has skyrocketed in recent years.

AppLovin’s market value hit a record-breaking $248 billion in December. Investor doubts about AppLovin’s ability to successfully enter the e-commerce advertising market and reports of shortsellers have shaken the stock.

Concerns about how AI might upend the advertising sector are more general than the difficulties. The company’s market value has dropped by about 40% this year, to about $137 billion. Following the US’s threat to ban TikTok unless its owner, ByteDance Ltd., stopped using the app, AppLovin indicated interest in purchasing the company outside of China. sold it to a US company.