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As the Founder and CEO of CouponFollow, Marc has a passion for helping consumers save time and money while shopping online. He’s been a bargain and deal hunter since the early 2000s.
TikTok has taken the internet by storm. Being one of the fastest-growing social media platforms globally, it’s attracting internet users of different ages, backgrounds, and locations.
With TikTok penetrating over 150 countries and expanding its user base every day, understanding the platform is more important than ever. Especially for businesses who want to grow their brand by advertising to younger audiences.
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the latest TikTok facts and figures to understand its demographics, growth rate, advertising methods, marketing opportunities, and much more.
Here’s a list of the most recent and relevant TikTok stats you should know:
First, let’s break down some TikTok audience stats:
(Source: Statista)
TikTok’s user base has grown significantly over the past three years, with its number of active users rising from 55 million in January 2018 to 1 billion in September 2021.
(Source: CNBC,TechCrunch)
Outside China, the U.S. was the leading country with the highest number of active users in August 2020.
Active users refer to people who use a given app daily, weekly, or monthly. Indonesia came in second with 22 million monthly active users (MAUs). Before it shut down, India was the leading country with the most active TikTok users.
(Source: Statista)
In the U.S., most TikTok users are female, with only 39% of its active users being male. If you compare these figures with social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, it shows that TikTok leads with a stronger female audience than any other platform.
(Source: Mediakix)
Overall, the number of TikTok users aged 18 and above increased during the quarantine period. So, if you are looking to target a young, vibrant audience with your brand, this video-sharing platform features a large user base of younger people.
(Source: Statista)
Most TikTok users in the U.S. are in the age group of 10–19 years. The TikTok app boasts a huge fan base of Gen Zs and millennials, who combined make up 69.1% of the U.S. TikTok user base. However, the amount of U.S. adults who use the app is also rising.
(Source: Search Engine Journal)
When users were asked how they perceived the content on TikTok, most of them said that they see it as authentic, unfiltered, and trendsetting. People feel free to be themselves in their videos, which attracts a lot of users.
(Source: GWI)
Based on user actions on this platform, TikTok stats show that the minority of its users create video content while 64% of users spend their time watching videos.
(Source: Statista)
Though the number is close, more females create TikTok videos than males, with 46.21% of TikTok video creators being male.
(Source: Statista)
Additionally, 9% of TikTok’s content creators are under 13. TikTok doesn’t have registration restrictions for users 13 years and older. However, users under 13 need to use the platform's “Younger Users” version. This version still allows them to create content.
(Source: Statista)
Progressively smaller numbers of creators had larger-sized audiences, with 0.06% of the total TikTok creators having more than 10 million followers on their channels.
(Source: GWI)
This means that many TikTok creators make their own original content as opposed to solely participating in hashtag challenges.
This means that a huge portion of the people who are using TikTok are daily active users who either create videos themselves or watch videos that other users create every single day.
(Source: Statista)
Additionally, another 11% of TikTok users spend five to ten hours on the platform weekly. This means that 17% of TikTok users spend more than one and a half days per month on TikTok.
(Source: State of Mobile Report 2021)
TikTok surpassed other social media services in terms of time spent on the platform, with Facebook users only spending an average of 17.7 hours on Facebook.
(Source: Statista)
TikTok influencers with more videos have a larger following base. In comparison to these big influencers, TikTok influencers with 1,000–5,000 followers only made about 192 posts on average.
(Source: Statista)
TikTok engagement rate refers to the number of user likes, follows, comments, shares, and duets a person gets, as well as how many times their TikTok hashtags and sounds are used. In comparison to U.S. influencers, international TikTok influencers had a lower engagement rate at 15.86%.
(Source: Statista)
This is considerably higher than the 37,382 views that macro-influencers with between 100,000 to 1 million followers received.
(Source: Statista)
Nano-influencers are people who have 1–5,000 followers. Micro-influencers who have between 5,000–20,000 followers had the second-highest engagement rate at 16.1%. If you compare these findings with other social media apps like Instagram and YouTube, TikTok has a higher virality rate for nano and micro-influencers.
(Source: Statista)
Usage of the hashtag #maxplumpjump was also really high, with more than 2,500 people publishing video content under it.
(Source: Statista)
The hashtag #ifeelweightless was used for a challenge that featured a new foundation from the Bobbi Brown cosmetics brand. TikTok users created videos with dance choreography featuring this product.
(Source: Statista)
Since TikTok is mainly a platform for entertainment and social networking, it’s no surprise that its entertainment category, which involves things like lip-syncing and funny videos, is its most popular category by far. Coming in second place is its dance category with 181 billion hashtag views.
Next, we’ll break down some TikTok growth stats.
(Source: Statista)
Today, TikTok is one of the most valuable media entertainment brands worldwide. This proves that the platform, which was previously seen as a short-live teen phenomenon, has become a highly profitable business model.
(Source: Sensor Tower)
New downloads of the app were down 38% year-over-year, going from close to 619 million in the first half of 2020 to 383 million in 2021. This is partially due to TikTok’s removal from India’s app stores.
(Source: Sensor Tower, Business of Apps)
TikTok App growth rate continues to hit astronomical records. The stats show this app hit the highest number of lifetime downloads and active users in the span of five years than any other social app in history. For reference, Facebook has around 5 billion downloads, and it’s been around for 17 years. Additionally, TikTok is the first non-Facebook app to hit 3 billion downloads.
(Source: Statista)
Nigerian Android users downloaded the TikTok App more than 493,000 times during the measured period. After Nigeria, Canada’s TikTok downloads on Google Play increased by 108.3%.
(Source: Statista)
Much as it had with downloads on Google Play, Nigeria also took the lead with the most TikTok downloads on the iOS App Store. Austria came in second with a 30.4% increase.
(Source: Wallaroo Media)
In addition to the platform being available in over 150 countries, it’s also available in 75 different languages. These include English, Polish, Filipino, Portuguese, German, Cebuan, and Italian, just to name a few.
(Source: Statista)
Coming in second after Norway, Russia had a TikTok user growth rate of 140.9% over the same time period.
(Source: Sensor Tower)
Contrary to people’s belief that Facebook is still the number one most downloaded app, in September 2021, TikTok took the lead for App Store downloads and overall downloads worldwide.
(Source: Sensor Tower)
Despite being the most downloaded (non-game) app on the Apple App Store, and overall, TikTok came third on the Google Play downloads chart after Facebook and Instagram. It still managed to beat apps like Messenger and Whatsapp, which are extremely popular.
(Source: Statista)
TikTok’s popularity grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was mainly due to the shelter-in-place orders set around the world. Notably, this is also the peak period where TikTok hit its lifetime-highest number of users.
Now, let’s break down TikTok’s advertising and e-commerce stats.
(Source: Sensor Tower)
In Q2 of 2021, TikTok saw its greatest growth in year-over-year consumer spending. Consumer spending increased from $343 million to $535 million from the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021.
(Source: Statista)
According to recent industry measurements, Saudi Arabia generated more than $9.5 million in-app revenues for TikTok through Google Play in October 2021.
(Source: Statista)
The United States generated more than $5.3 million in-app revenues for TikTok through the iOS App Store in September 2021. Saudi Arabia came in second, generating close to $5 million in the same time period.
(Source: Kantar)
Social media ads help businesses increase their sales. TikTok ads, in particular, are extremely powerful. TikTok believes its ads are favored above other platforms because TikTok ads have authentically and natively become part of the TikTok experience and community.
(Source: TikTok)
Brands have started to create ads specifically for the TikTok audience. Many TikTok users are in a discovery mindset when scrolling through the platform, which is why they’re extremely receptive to ads, especially when they scroll through the For You feed.
(Source: Kantar)
This is mainly because TikTok has differentiated advertising propositions where ads are natively embedded into the user experience. TikTok also makes it easy for marketers to analyze their metrics with its analytics tool.
(Source: TikTok)
TikTok advises that brands should get straight to the point in their ads while still adding value by telling a great story that users can relate to.
(Source: TikTok)
TikTok’s in-feed ads are 60-second long ads that appear on autoplay on users’ feeds. Together with TikTok, Momentary Ink came up with a marketing strategy that resulted in massive success, with the brand getting a 1.5% click-through rate and 14 million video views.
This goes to show that both mature and startup businesses have great potential to grow on this platform.
(Source: Kantar)
The top reason users prefer this type of ad format is that it has a more natural placement within the platform with full-screen and sound-on features.
(Source: TikTok)
Branded hashtags are discoverable organically. When you click on them, they take you to a branded page with a link to the brands’ product or website. With these types of ads, businesses can create a hashtag challenge and watch users start a TikTok trend using their branded hashtags.
(Source: Statista)
Adult Swim is a programming block targeting adults. It’s shown on Cartoon Network at night. It’s one of the fastest-growing brands on TikTok, with more users mentioning the brand in videos.
(Source: Center for Marketing Research)
This percentage is likely to grow as these companies target Gen Z and millennial audiences (TikTok’s primary audiences). However, some of the brands actively using TikTok include McDonald’s, Amazon, Apple, Walmart, and Netflix.
(Source: Statista)
In a bid to meet e-commerce needs, TikTok offers in-app purchase tools and features to help merchants sell their products on the platform. This aligns with people’s online shopping behaviors since many rely on e-commerce for their daily shopping needs.
(Source: TikTok, The Richest, Statista)
The young TikTok star became popular on the platform for her dancing and choreography. She’s worked with brands including Dunkin Donuts, Pura Vida, Hollister, EOS Skincare, Morphe 2, Hulu, and Book Deal.
(Source: The New York Times, Statista)
Khaby Lame — who's currently tailing D’Amelio on TikTok — was working at a factory before warming his way to over 107.54 million TikTok users in less than a year. Some of his brand partners include Boss and Dream11.
Let’s break down TikTok’s creator fund stats.
(Source: TikTok)
The creator fund is set to grow to $1 billion in the next three years for U.S. TikTok creators. To Qualify to join the TikTok creator fund, a content creator needs a minimum of 100,000 video views in the last 30 days.
(Source: TikTok)
$50 million of the $250 million went toward the Creative Learning Fund. The TikTok hashtag #LearnOnTikTok strives to provide resources and reward creative trainers to share educational content. The creative trainers that’ll benefit from this fund include science instructors, as well as fitness, cooking, and DIY project trainers.
Lastly, let’s break down stats about TikTok’s history.
(Source: TikTok Report)
TikTok’s revenue has been growing exponentially. In 2017, the platform reached $63 million in revenue. In 2018, it reached $150 million. In 2019, it reached $350 million. Finally, in 2020, its revenue reached an all-time high in the billions.
(Source: Statista)
TikTok is a product of two brands. Musical.ly, which was launched in 2014, and the Douyin that was released in 2016 by ByteDance. The two merged to penetrate the international user base.
The Chinese version remains under the name Douyin, while TikTok is for international users.
(Source: Business Insider)
Despite an explosive growth rate, TikTok has its fair share of challenges. The app was permanently banned in India and Pakistan. Also, the U.S, Bangladesh, and Indonesia have tried to ban TikTok permanently.
TikTok is undoubtedly the app that’s giving all other giant social media apps a run for their money.
Not only that, it continues to attract users — including Gen Zs, millennials, and baby boomers — to its platform. That’s all thanks to short-form videos that are funny and entertaining.
The virality and authentic nature of TikTok make it the best platform for brands to reach their target audiences.
Thinking of opening a business account and doing social media marketing on TikTok? Learn why selling directly to consumers is a great way to grow your brand.