While many still think of it as a Gen Z platform for dance challenges, TikTok has grown to encompass every kind of marketing content and community. And with the launch of in-app shopping in 2021, it’s become even more essential to brands looking to connect directly with customers.According to the TikTok’s What’s Next Report 2022, 88% of users report that music is critical to the TikTok experience. Maybe that’s why 93% of top performing video marketers use audio.
That’s over 100 million downloads more than the runner-up, Instagram, which was downloaded 545 million times last year.
It’s also the third year in a row that TikTok has held the number-one spot. It was downloaded 693 million times in 2019 and 850 million times in 2020. Like many apps on the most-downloaded list, it experienced a major drop in worldwide downloads from the previous year, but held onto its top ranking.
According to Apptopia, TikTok was also the number-one download in the United States, with 94 million downloads in 2021— a 6% increase over 2020.
TikTok also continued its streak as the top-grossing app, surpassing $2.5 billion dollars in consumer spending in 2021.
TikTok hit three billion downloads in July 2021. That’s even more impressive when you realize that they reached two billion downloads less than a year before.
It’s also the first non-Facebook app to reach 3 billion downloads. Since January 2014, the only other apps to do so are Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
And even though it launched in 2016, TikTok is the seventh-most downloaded app of the 2010’s.
It ranks just behind Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and WeChat. Since 2021, it’s surpassed Facebook Messenger to move into 6th place.
However, there’s another way to look at these rankings. The Chinese version of TikTok is called Douyin, which is number eight on this list. Douyin is actually the original app launched by parent company ByteDance in September 2016, who rolled out TikTok for international audiences in 2017. There are small differences between the two apps, but they look and function almost the same way.
Douyin boasts 600 million daily active users (most apps use monthly figures). When the two apps are combined, they reach fourth place on this list, ahead of Instagram and WeChat.
TikTok is not without its detractors: in the US, 34% of adults hold unfavorable opinions of the app, compared to 37% who have favorable views. This is more controversial than other platforms: Instagram is viewed favorably by 50% of adults and unfavorably by 24%. Facebook is viewed favorably by 55% and unfavorably by 39%.
This varies by age, naturally. Fifty-nine percent of 18- to 34-year-olds view TikTok favorably, compared to 40% of 35- to 44-year-olds and 31% of 45- to 64-year-olds. Generally speaking, older demographics are more skeptical of the platform compared to younger ones.
This caution may reflect the platform’s history with disturbing content. In December 2021, a viral hoax about school violence spread rapidly across TikTok, alarming parents and children. Other hoaxes and harmful content, like videos promoting rapid weight loss, have proliferated on the platform and drawn criticism.
In response, TikTok announced updates to their Community Guidelines in February 2022 to improve safety. They’ve committed to removing dangerous content from the platform, with particular attention to content promoting hateful ideologies, eating disorders, violence, or self-harm.
It’s an understatement to say TikTok is growing rapidly. Eight new users join TikTok every second, with an average of 650,000 new users joining daily. NBD, just the entire population of Helsinki signing up each day.
Those numbers add up fast. In September 2021, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance reported that they had hit the one billion mark— a 45% increase since July 2020. Compared to Facebook and YouTube, which both took eight years to hit a billion users, TikTok made it in just five years. What’s more, TikTok is expected to reach 1.5 billion users by the end of 2022.
Social media users are active on multiple platforms: those between the ages of 18 and 34 are using 8 platforms every month. TikTok users are no different, with 99.9% reporting that they’re using other platforms.
You’re most likely to find TikTok users on Facebook (84.6% overlap), Instagram (83.9% overlap), and YouTube (80.5% overlap).
TikTok has now surpassed Instagram for popularity among Gen Z users (born between 1997 and 2012) in the United States, with 37.3 million to Instagram’s 33.3 million.
But TikTok is also making big gains in other age demographics: in the first quarter of 2021, 36% of TikTok users were between 35 and 54 years old, compared to 26% in 2020.
While Snapchat is still more popular than Instagram and TikTok among Gen Z, by 2025 all three apps are expected to have roughly the same number of users.
Worldwide, TikTok’s user base is 57% female. That figure rises to 61% for TikTok users in the US.
While TikTok’s user base is increasingly diverse, it’s still true that the brands hoping to reach younger female audiences will likely see the best results.
Interestingly, only 4.3% of internet users named TikTok as their favorite social media platform. That’s less than a third as many users as those who favored Instagram (14.8%) or Facebook (14.5%).
Video marketers love this app. And despite TikTok’s reputation for dominating the Gen Z market, it doesn’t rank as the top choice for younger users. Users between the ages of 16 and 24 rank Instagram as their top choice: 22.8% of males, and 25.6% of females. Only 8.9% of female users in this age demographic selected TikTok as their top choice, and just 5.4% of males.
That’s a 47% increase in time spent on the app compared to 2020, when Android users were spending 13.3 hours each month.
In terms of time spent, TikTok is tied for second place with Facebook. YouTube is still in the top position, holding users’ interest for an average of 23.7 hours each month.
Usage varies by country. UK users spend the most time on TikTok, with an average of 27.3 hours. Those in the US spend an average of 25.6 hours per month on TikTok, slightly more than Canadian users, who spend 22.6 hours each month.
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