Most people probably remember TikTok as Kesha’s hit single. But for the teens of the world, it has a whole different meaning. TikTok is a whole new subculture. TikTok, one of the fastest growing social media platforms in the world, offers an alternative to online sharing. It allows users to create short videos with music, filters and some other features. Sometimes funny, sometimes creepy, but absolutely addicting. While for many, TikTok appears to fill the void left by Vine, it’s not limited to that. TikTok provides users with a platform to express themselves in very creative ways. But what exactly is this mysterious app that the young man doesn’t seem to be able to take full advantage of? let’s see.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is an iOS and Android media app that can be used to create and share short videos. It was originally launched as Douyin in China in September 2016. The following year, 2017, ByteDance launched the app for markets outside of China. Both TikTok and Douyin use the same software but maintain separate networks to comply with China’s censorship restrictions. TikTok is available around the world through the App Store or Google Play Store. Some of you may be wondering why TikTok’s work in the app might sound odd to Musical.ly. This is for good reason.
In late 2017, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, purchased Musical.ly. As a result of the merger, TikTok could easily tap into the U.S. teen market previously owned by Musical.ly. To give you an idea of TikTok’s purpose as a company, their mission is to “capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and precious life moments directly from their mobile phones. TikTok makes it possible for everyone to be a creator and encourages users to use their videos to share their passion and creative expression.”
In this way, TikTok competes with giants like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook with Google or Facebook backing. What makes TikTok stand out from the competition is that it’s more of an entertainment platform than a lifestyle platform. What’s so appealing is that almost anyone can become a content provider thanks to the simplicity of using the app. That’s why it attracts so many content creators across the globe. Now that we understand what TikTok is, let’s dive into the top 10 TikTok statistics for 2019 and why knowing them is useful for marketers around the world.
1. How many users does TikTok have?
TikTok was released in September 2016, and in the three years since its release, it is safe to say that it has exploded in popularity. TikTok has 800 million active users worldwide (Datareportal, 2020). This puts TikTok at No. 9 in terms of social networking sites, ahead of well-known sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat. Interestingly, China has 150 million daily active users, most of them using the Chinese version of the app Douyin.
TikTok is especially warmly welcomed by many Asian countries such as Cambodia, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Just to give you an idea of how other apps compare in performance, it took only 6 years for Instagram to launch to get the number of monthly active users that TikTok managed to achieve in three years. It took nearly four years to get Facebook to reach the same number of monthly active users.
2. How many downloads does TikTok have?
TikTok is by far one of the most downloaded apps in the world in recent years, breaking the 1 billion and 1.5 billion downloads mark on the App Store and Google Play, respectively, in a single year in 2019. The app only hit its first billion in February 2019, and it took less than eight months to reach a billion in revenue – an impressive number.
The latest TikTok statistics show that from January to November 2019, the app has been downloaded 614 million times (Sensor Tower, 2019). This marks a 6% increase over the previous year and is clearly on track to surpass 2018’s total downloads. If the growth figures hold, it means the app could be the third most popular non-gaming app in 2019, behind WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, with 707.4 million and 636.2 million installs, respectively. It will also lead social media giants Facebook itself and Instagram. Interestingly, of the five apps mentioned above, TikTok is the only one that is not part of the Facebook group. If you need further proof of TikTok’s popularity, here’s another one. Despite its recent launch in late 2016, TikTok has been among the ten most-downloaded apps of the past decade, ranking seventh on YouTube and Twitter, and even surpassing YouTube and Twitter for a long time.
3. TikTok is the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store
If previous TikTok stats didn’t surprise you, this one certainly will. As of Q1 2019, TikTok was the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store with 33 million downloads in a single quarter (Sensor Tower, 2019). The app beat YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, which rounded out the top five. What’s more, this is the fifth consecutive quarter that TikTok has been the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store. This means that TikTok is not only able to keep its current user base strong, but it is also evolving to attract new and growing user bases. But TikTok seems to be more popular among iPhone users than Android users – TikTok is the third most downloaded app on Google Play, after WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Even so, Q1 2019 was the app’s best-performing quarter, with 188 million new users, a 70% year-over-year increase from the 110 million new users recorded in Q1 2018.
In further evidence of the app’s recent rise in popularity, TikTok also crossed the 1 billion mark with app installs on the App Store and Google Play worldwide. That’s thanks in large part to 667 million first downloads in 2018 – making it fourth on the list of the most downloaded non-gaming apps of the year.
4. The TikTok app conquered the world’s teens
TikTok is really engaging when it comes to interacting with young people around the world. It might have been a bit of a headache for earlier generations, but TikTok is nothing new to the world’s teens. 41% of TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24 (Globalwebindex, 2019). Social media apps are hyped among young people, but many adult social media users have never heard of it, and you might be wondering why. In short – it’s by design.
First of all, the popularity of TikTok among the younger generation can be explained by the fact that the app creators decided from the beginning to choose under 18s as their target audience. In a way, you could argue that the creators of TikTok understand the younger generation in a better way than the rival apps. Having specified their target audience from the start, they understood the habits and preferences of this age group, which led them to create a social media app that would give the audience exactly the information they were looking for. TikTok allows users to create and share fun videos while singing, dancing, or lip-syncing to their favorite music. It allows young crowds to express themselves in creative ways, whether it’s through dancing, singing or doing some form of comedy. If you look at it that way, it’s no surprise why it’s generating so much hype among teens around the world.
5. TikTok usage by country
Much of TikTok’s download growth in 2019 came from Asia, especially India. In 2019 alone (as of November 2019), India completed 267.6 million downloads, almost half (45%) of all downloads for the whole year (Sensor Tower, 2019). This also accounts for 60% of total downloads in India. In other words, six out of every ten downloads of the TikTok app in India occurred in 2019. India is followed by China and the US with 45.5 million (7.4%) and 37.6 million (6%) downloads respectively. These 2019 downloads are also fairly representative of the app’s historical downloads. Of the total downloads of the TikTok app so far, 446.8 million (or 31%) have come from India. That’s more than double the 173.2 million downloads from China. The two countries combined account for more than 40% of the total downloads of the TikTok app. By comparison, the US had 123.8 million downloads, or 8.2% of the total. TikTok is fully aware of its growing popularity in the South Asian country and is adapting its platform to cater to local and diverse populations. For now, it supports 15 Indian languages and is marketed through an educational program recently launched in the country.
6. How much time do users spend on TikTok on average per day?
Regarding daily time spent on TikTok, users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app (Business ofApps, 2019). So, this means that people are using social networking apps every day to create and share their own short videos or watch the vast existing TikTok videos uploaded to the platform. Either way, they spend nearly an hour a day. Let’s take a look at how other social media sites perform compared to TikTok. People spend almost the same amount of time on Instagram (53 minutes) and less time on Snapchat (49.5 minutes). Facebook leads the pack, with users spending an average of 58.5 minutes a day on the social media platform. All of this can be a big deal for marketers. This is because the more time people spend on these apps, the higher the chance they will see ads.
7. How many countries is TikTok available in?
As of 2019, TikTok is available in 155 countries (Apptrace, 2019). It is also available in 75 languages. This covers a large portion of the population. It’s worth mentioning how TikTok has attracted such a large audience in such a short period of time, while constantly expanding into new markets. First, most of TikTok’s Western audience belongs to Musical.ly, while for Eastern audiences, who run a standalone version of the app called Douyin, they’re more familiar with it. TikTok has done a particularly good job of growing its Asian following. In Thailand alone, the app has been downloaded more than 10 million times. In India, the app has now over 20 million active users. As a marketer, you might be interested in this TikTok statistic when you think about your marketing efforts based on your target audience. With TikTok, you can reach audiences in 155 different countries. And, statistically speaking, there’s a good chance your audience is located somewhere in these countries.
8. Nine out of ten TikTok users use the app multiple times a day
Three-quarters of all apps are downloaded, accessed once, and then completely forgotten. Using the next TikTok stats, you can be sure that TikTok belongs to the remaining quartile. 90% of TikTok users visit the app on a daily basis. Not only that, they are very active on the app. One study looked at the behavior of TikTok users over a month and found that 68% of TikTok users watched someone else’s video, while 55% uploaded their own (Globalwebindex, 2019). There also appear to be differences in viewing and sharing habits, with the former clearly preferred among TikTok users. Going deeper, there may be some obvious reasons why people tend to watch existing content rather than publish their own. Some users may prefer TikTok as a source of entertainment. But despite the fact that users are more actively watching existing content, a surprising number of people are still sharing their videos. It’s also a testament to TikTok’s creative freedom and simplicity as a social platform.
9. More American adults use TikTok
We have another fascinating TikTok stat that helps us better understand the demographics of TikTok users. Basically, Americans love TikTok. Of the 500 million monthly active users, 26.5 are from the US. This statistic combines TikTok downloads on Android and iOS. But even though the app is still enjoying overwhelming popularity among teens, the latest figures actually suggest it has strayed from that trend. Aside from a small decline in the third quarter of 2018, the number of U.S. adults using TikTok has continued to grow over the past few years (Marketingcharts, 2019). At the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2017, there were 2.6 million adult TikTok users in the United States. Just 12 months later, that number had nearly tripled to 7.2 million. TikTok use among U.S. adults has grown exponentially since September 2018, doubling to 14.3 million in just six months. In less than 18 months, the number of adult TikTok users in the U.S. has grown 5.5 times.
One of the main factors behind the sudden rise in TikTok’s popularity starting in September 2018 can be attributed to The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. As part of the host of the show “The Tonight Show,” Fallon encouraged viewers to take part in a series of challenges hosted by the TikTok app. Through this partnership, TikTok has seen tremendous growth in engagement and downloads.
10. Average number of videos watched on TikTok
When it comes to the average number of videos watched on TikTok, over 1 million videos are watched every day in a year (Influencermarketinghub, 2018). Astoundingly, during the development of TikTok, it reached the milestone of 1 million views per day. The TikTok stats themselves are proof that you need to start following this social media site. As mentioned, the app initially started growing when it acquired its competitor Musical.ly in 2017.
After merging the two apps, there was no looking back. In this way, TikTok can not only enter the market smoothly, but also meet the needs of the existing market. But it’s important not to forget that TikTok’s huge user base is due not only to growth in Western markets, but also to effective growth in emerging markets such as China and India. Content and community are important factors that have encouraged TikTok to grow in a very short period of time. Since then, TikTok has continued to grow and attract new audiences.
in conclusion
So it’s safe to say that TikTok is doing more than just replacing Vine or other similar social media apps. Now, while TikTok may compete with the big players in the market, the platform’s purpose is different from YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat. TikTok is a platform primarily aimed at content creators. And the ease with which anyone can become a content creator is one of the many factors that give TikTok an edge over the competition. Keeping these TikTok stats in mind, you’ll be able to understand new social media events in a better way. These statistics also prove that TikTok is not a force to be taken lightly, whether you are a social media marketer or a social media user. It’s time to take about TikTok seriously.
