TikTok Stats You Should Know
Introduction
The video-sharing platform TikTok is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance Ltd. It was launched in China in 2016 under the name Douyin. In 2017, ByteDance decided to go global. The platform went viral in 2018 after a merger with Musical.ly. ByteDance is said to have invested around $1 billion in the company.
TikTok is now one of the most installed apps in the world. In the first quarter of 2021, TikTok was the most popular social media app in the app stores. It was downloaded more than Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, or Pinterest.
So what does that mean in numbers? We have collected some facts and figures that highlight the huge success of the social media platform.
Download and User Numbers
- Downloads: The TikTok app has been downloaded approximately 2.6 billion times worldwide. Around 62 million downloads have been recorded for the year 2021 alone.
- Active Users: Every month, TikTok is actively used by around 1 billion people around the world. Growth since 2018 has been tremendous. While there were 680 million active users in 2018, the user base of 1 billion was reached in just 3 years.
- Geographical Distribution: More than half of the users are still Chinese. For Europe, figures are known for 2020, according to which there will be about 100 million active users. Besides China, the US is becoming the largest market for the platform.
- US Demographics: In the US, 60% of users are female and 40% male. The age group of 16 to 24 years makes up the majority. 26% of the users are between 25 and 44 years old. 80% of American users are between the ages of 16 and 34.
- Teen Usage: A survey of American teenagers in 2020 showed that TikTok is the second most popular social media app among this target group. Only Snapchat is more popular. Instagram is just behind TikTok.
Country Comparisons
The video-sharing platform is now available in around 200 countries and in 75 languages, reaching a large part of the world's population. This rapid expansion is partly due to the merger with Musical.ly. While Musical.ly was heavily used in Western countries, the original Chinese version, Douyin, was used in Eastern cultures. Interesting data is available for some countries, which we will look at here.
Europe
- User Rankings: In Europe, the UK leads in the number of users, followed by France and Germany, with Italy and Spain trailing. The majority of European TikTok users are female.
- UK Usage: A TikTok user in the UK spends an average of 41 minutes a day on the platform. The penetration rate in the UK started at 1.9% and increased to 6.9%, with the user base estimated at 17 million.
North America
- Canada: In Canada, TikTok faces competition from Facebook, Messenger, and YouTube, but still shows significant growth potential.
- USA: TikTok's user base in the USA is substantial, with a strong presence among teenagers and young adults.
Australia and Asia
- Australia: Australians are spending more time on TikTok than YouTube in 2021, despite YouTube having more users.
- Singapore: In the first half of 2020, Singapore recorded 1.04 million new downloads of the app, with most users utilizing the platform regularly for entertainment.
- Philippines: TikTok was the most downloaded entertainment app in the Philippines in 2020, with a predominantly English-speaking audience accessing posts from around the world.
- India: In 2020, TikTok had 200 million users in India before the government banned the service along with several other social media platforms due to privacy and security concerns.
Most Popular Content
TikTok's content numbers show that entertainment videos are by far the most viewed. Here are the most popular content categories in 2020, in billions of views:
- Entertainment: 538 billion views
- Dance: 181 billion views
- Pranks: 79 billion views
- Fitness and Sports: 57 billion views
- Renovation and DIY: 39 billion views
- Beauty and Skin Care: 33 billion views
- Recipes and Cooking: 18 billion views
- Guides: 13 billion views
- Pets: 10 billion views
- Other: 2 billion views
Marketing Relevance of TikTok
TikTok primarily appeals to the young, modern generation. For companies, the platform is seen as an ideal channel to communicate marketing messages to this target group and to cleverly place products. Generation Z accounts for approximately 60% of all users.
Engagement and User Time
It is well known that the amount of time users spend on the platform is a key factor in marketing. TikTok has a clear advantage over social media apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram. TikTok's primary goal seems to be to increase the time its users spend on the platform, and the methods used to achieve this are very sophisticated.
Conclusion
The incredible success story of TikTok can be proven very well with the data mentioned. It is predicted that the app will continue to grow and become more popular in the coming years. TikTok's rapid growth, extensive reach, and high engagement make it a critical platform for businesses targeting younger demographics.