The Irish arm of social media giant TikTok returned to profit with pretax profits of $146.52 million (€125.2 million) recorded last year.
Accounts filed by TikTok Technology Ltd show that the company recorded the return to profit as revenues increased by 32 per cent, rising from $654.67 million to $862 million.
The company recorded the pretax profit of $146.5 million after sustaining a pretax loss of $1 billion in the prior year due to setting aside $1 billion for potential fines arising from regulatory investigations and legal proceedings.
In March of this year, the Chinese video-sharing platform informed Government that it was planning to make redundant up to 300 of its Dublin-based staff.
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In May, the Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined TikTok Technology €530 million for breaching data privacy rules in transferring European users’ personal data to China, following a lengthy investigation.
The High Court, in July, granted permission to TikTok Technology to appeal what the company described as the “penal” fine.
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The average numbers employed at the Dublin unit last year decreased by 212 from 2,920 to 2,708 made up of 1,973 in operation and administration and 735 in sales and marketing.
During the same period, staff costs increased from $229.47 million to $245.77 million made up of $214.47 million in salaries, $17.07 million in social welfare costs, $9.7 million in share based payments and $4.49 million in pension costs.
Three directors served during the year and pay to directors increased from $608,000 to $899,000 made up of $848,000 in emoluments and $51,000 in pension contributions.
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The Dublin-based business provides services related to content moderation, data controlling of TikTok in the European Economic Area (EEA), and sales, marketing and routine support to other TikTok entities.
In a note with the accounts the directors said that “the company’s activities continued to grow throughout 2024”.
The note said that that the company will continue to provide support services to other TikTok entities and following the launch of TikTok Shop in Ireland and Spain in December 2024, intend to continue expanding the business within Europe.
The company has performed in line with expectations “and a higher demand for the company’s services, rise in data centre expenses and other related costs resulted in an increase in recurring operating expenses”, the note said.
The accounts were signed off by directors Elaine McGovern and Adam Michael Presser on August 19th.
The company recorded operating profits of $173.58 million and interest payments of $27 million reduced the profits to a pretax profit of $146.52 million.
The firm’s operating lease charges increased from $38.2 million to $45.6 million while non-cash depreciation costs increased from $47.44 million to $58.9 million.
The company recorded a post-tax profit of $133.35 million after incurring a corporation tax charge of $13.16 million.
