Most people might recall TikTok as being the hit pop single by Kesha. And we don’t blame them. But for the teens of the world, it has taken a completely different meaning. Try asking one of Gen Z’ers and they’ll tell you that TikTok is a completely new subculture.
One of the fastest-growing social media platforms, TikTok presents an alternative version of online sharing. It allows users to create short videos with music, filters, and some other features.
Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s cringey, but it’s definitely addictive.
And while for many people TikTok seems to be filling a void left by Vine, there’s much more to it than just that. TikTok provides a platform for users to express themselves in a very creative way.
But what exactly is this mystery app that youngsters can’t seem to get enough of? Let’s take a look.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is an iOS and Android media app that can be used for creating and sharing short videos. It was initially launched as Douyin in September 2016, in China. The following year, in 2017, the app was launched by ByteDance for markets outside of China. TikTok and Douyin both use the same software, but maintain separate networks in order to comply with Chinese censorship restrictions. TikTok is available all around the world via the App Store or Google Play stores.
Our favorite cover of “Stand by Me.” 😍 pic.twitter.com/qcVTwiPvI5
— TikTok (@tiktok_us) October 22, 2018
Some of you might be wondering why TikTok might sound oddly similar to Musical.ly in terms of what you do within the apps. And there’s a good reason why. In late 2017, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, purchased Musical.ly. As a result of the merger, TikTok had smooth access to targeting the US teenage market which previously belonged to Musical.ly.
To give you an idea of what TikTok aims for as a company, their mission is “to capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and precious life moments, directly from the mobile phone. TikTok enables everyone to be a creator, and encourages users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos.” In doing so, TikTok competes with giants like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook that have either the backing of Google or Facebook.
What helps TikTok stand out among the competition is that it’s more of an entertainment platform, instead of a lifestyle platform. And what makes it so attractive is that practically anyone can become a content provider because of the simplicity of using the app. That’s why it appeals to so many content creators around the world and why they’re exploring ways to improve their TikTok growth.
Now that we understand what TikTok is, let’s dive into the top 10 TikTok statistics for 2023, and why knowing them can be useful for marketers around the world.
By the way, here’s a course on Tiktok marketing and a blog post that discusses TikTok for business that can teach you critical tactics for getting sales using Tiktok.
Top 10 TikTok Statistics
1. How Many Users Does TikTok Have?
TikTok has exploded in popularity since its launch in 2016, and the numbers prove it all.
The latest TikTok statistics show that in 2023, the platform has 1.08 billion monthly active users worldwide (DataReportal, 2023). That makes TikTok the sixth-most popular social media platform in terms of users, ahead of other social networks that have been around much longer such as Snapchat and Pinterest.
Just to give you an idea of how other apps performed in comparison with TikTok’s growth, it took Instagram 7.7 years from its launch to hit the 1 billion user mark. Facebook, widely known as the king of social media, took 8.7 years. The only social media platform to reach this milestone quicker than TikTok is Facebook Messenger.
With that said, this TikTok user statistic of 1 billion does not include users in China, home to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. That’s because the social media site operates under a different name there. Called Douyin, this Chinese version of TikTok boasts 730 million daily active users. This means that together, TikTok and Douyin have over 1.8 billion active users worldwide.
2. How Many Downloads Does TikTok Have?
In February 2019, TikTok reached its first billion downloads. The app took just under eight months to gain half a billion more. These figures are nothing short of impressive, considering that the app was launched only as recently as 2016.
Today, TikTok’s growth is showing no signs of stopping. The latest TikTok statistics show that as of April 2020, the popular video app has been downloaded more than 2 billion times worldwide on both the Apple App Store and Google Play (Sensor Tower, 2020). In other words, TikTok was able to double its number of downloads in just over a year—a clear sign of the app’s skyrocketing popularity.
That’s not the only significant download landmark that the app has reached. In the first quarter of 2020, there were a total of 315 million TikTok downloads worldwide. Not only is this a whopping 58% increase from the previous quarter, but more impressively, it is also the highest amount of downloads an app has ever received in a given quarter.
The surge in downloads was most likely a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Under lockdown, consumers spent more time on their mobile phones and sought out entertainment and new ways to stay connected, which in turn, drove TikTok downloads.
3. TikTok is the Most Downloaded App on the Apple App Store
If the previous TikTok statistic didn’t amaze you, this one will surely blow you away.
TikTok was the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store in Q2 2022, with over 60 million downloads in a single quarter on iPhone and iPad devices (Sensor Tower, 2022). The app strongly beat out CapCut, Google Maps, YouTube, and Instagram, which round out the top five.
In comparison, TikTok was the third-most downloaded app on Google Play, behind Facebook and Instagram. However, that’s not to say that TikTok’s any less popular among Android users. Looking at hard numbers, we see that there were 125 million downloads by Android users in Q2 2022.
TikTok also sits comfortably at the top of the list of the most downloaded app worldwide, with around 187 million downloads in Q2 2022. In comparison, the second-most downloaded app, Instagram, saw around 170 million downloads. More impressively, It’s the eighth time in the last 10 quarters that Tiktok has topped the charts.
4. TikTok Conquers US Youngsters
TikTok might still be a bit of a head-scratcher for the older generations, but it has really hit the nail on the head when it comes to engaging with youngsters.
Two-thirds of all US teens aged 18 to 19 use TikTok (Statista, 2022). In comparison, just 16% of consumers from 60 to 64 are TikTok users. In fact, the same data shows that TikTok’s penetration decreases with age. In other words, the older a consumer is, the less likely they’re active on TikTok.
Why is TikTok so popular among the younger generation, while many older social media users have never heard of it? Simply put—it’s by design.
To start off, the lure of TikTok among the younger generation can be explained by the fact that the app’s creators decided to choose young users as their target audience from the very beginning.
In a way, you can say that TikTok creators understood the younger generation much better than their competitors. With their target audience specified from the start, they studied their habits and preferences, which helped them create a social media app that gives them exactly what they’re looking for.
TikTok allows its users to express themselves creatively. Sharing amusing videos of themselves singing, dancing, or lip-syncing to their favorite tunes are just some ways youngsters use TikTok.
5. TikTok Downloads on Google Play
As the fastest-growing social media app, it’s interesting to take a look at where most TikTok downloads originate from.
The latest statistics show that TikTok was particularly popular in South America towards the end of Q3 2020. The app was downloaded from the Google Play store 3.08 million times in Brazil in the month of September alone (Statista, 2020).
Mexico is in second place with just a touch fewer downloads at 3 million, followed by the US with 2.31 million and Russia with 2.24 million.
Pakistan is fifth on the list and accounts for 1.65 million TikTok downloads. But it may soon be falling off the TikTok downloads charts as the country’s TikTok ban takes effect in October 2020. Authorities there say they’re doing so because of what they deem to be “immoral/indecent content” on the platform.
This comes just four months after the app was banned in neighboring India, formerly the country where the majority of TikTok’s users were located. At one point, TikTok downloads in India made up as much as 30% of the app’s total global downloads.
6. How Much Time Do Users Spend on TikTok Daily on Average?
When it comes to the daily time spent on TikTok, users in the US spend an average of 45.8 minutes per day on the app (eMarketer, 2022). This makes it the platform that social media users in the US are most active on.
Whether they’re using TikTok to create and share short videos of themselves or enjoying the plethora of TikTok videos uploaded to the platform, they’re doing it for more than half an hour every day.
Let’s take a look at how other social media sites perform in comparison to TikTok. US adults spend almost the same amount of time on YouTube (45.6 minutes), and nearly 10 minutes less on Twitter (34.8 minutes). This is followed by Snapchat with 30.4 minutes, and Instagram and Facebook, with 30.1 minutes each. This information is important for marketers to know. That’s because the more time people spend on these apps, the higher their chances of seeing advertisements and engaging with brands.
7. How Many Countries Is TikTok Available In?
As of 2019, TikTok is available in 155 countries (Apptrace, 2019). It’s also available in 75 languages. This covers a large part of the population.
What’s even more interesting to note is how TikTok managed to gather such a huge audience in such a short span of time, all the while growing into new markets. To begin with, most of TikTok’s Western audience belonged to Musical.ly, and for the Eastern audience, they run a separate version of the app called Douyin, which they’re much more familiar with. TikTok has done particularly well with growing its Asian followers. The app is downloaded more than 10 million times by the people in Thailand alone. And in India, there are now more than 20 million active users of the app.
As a marketer, this TikTok statistic can be of interest to you when you’re considering your marketing efforts based on your target audience. With TikTok, you have the possibility of reaching an audience in 155 different countries. And, statistically speaking, there’s a very high likelihood that your audience is located somewhere in these countries.
8. TikTok Users' Daily App Usage
Three-quarters of all apps are downloaded, accessed once, and then entirely forgotten. With the next TikTok statistic, you can be sure that TikTok falls into the remaining one-quarter.
90% of all TikTok users access the app on a daily basis. Not only that, they are extremely active on the app. A study observing the behavior of TikTok users in the span of one month shows that 68% of TikTok users watch someone else’s video and 55% upload their own videos (Global Web Index, 2019).
There also appears to be a difference in watching and sharing habits, with the former a clear preference among TikTok users.
To dig deeper, there might be some obvious reasons why there’s a preference for watching existing content over publishing your own. Some users might prefer TikTok as a source of entertainment. But, despite the fact that users are more actively watching existing content, there’s still an astonishing number of people who are sharing their own videos. This also demonstrates the creative freedom and simplicity of TikTok as a social platform.
9. Growing Number of US Adults Use TikTok
As mentioned earlier, TikTok was built for the younger generation and TikTok statistics show that it remains overwhelmingly more popular among youngsters—especially teens. That said, recent figures actually suggest a shift away from this trend.
Since 2019, TikTok’s penetration among US adults has been on the rise. That year, just 3% of US adults said they used TikTok. To put this into perspective, this was one out of every 33 of them. This surged by 10 percentage points to 12% in 2020, before rising further to 21% in 2021 (Marketingcharts, 2022). By 2022, as many as 30% of US adults—or one in three—claimed to use TikTok.
In just three years, the number of US adult TikTok users skyrocketed 10 times. This jump meant TikTok leapfrogged rivals Twitter (now known as X) and Snapchat to become the fifth-most popular social network among adult consumers in 2022.
What’s perhaps more impressive is the fact that TikTok was able to increase its penetration among US adult users year after year during this period. This cannot be said for other networks like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
10. Average Number of Viewed Videos on TikTok
When it comes to the average number of videos watched on TikTok, there were more than 1 million videos viewed every day in a year (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2018). What’s mind-blowing is that within a year of TikTok’s development, it reached this milestone of 1 million views per day.
This TikTok statistic is proof in itself that you need to start paying attention to this social media site. As mentioned earlier the app started initially growing when it acquired its rival Musical.ly in 2017. After the merger of the two apps, there was no looking back. This way not only did TikTok have a smooth entry to the market but it also catered to an existing market’s needs. But it’s important not to forget that TikTok’s sizable user base is not only due to a growth in Western markets but because of effectively growing in emerging markets like China and India.
Content and community were big players in encouraging the growth of TikTok in a very short span of time. From then onwards, TikTok continued to grow and reach new audiences.
Conclusion
So it’s safe to say that TikTok is doing much more than just replacing Vine or other similar social media apps. Now while TikTok might be competing with the big players in the market, the platform serves a different purpose than YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat. TikTok is a platform mainly 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 advantage over the competition.
With these TikTok statistics in mind, you’ll be able to understand the new social media happenings in a better way. These statistics also prove that whether you’re a social media marketer or a social media user, TikTok isn’t a force to be taken lightly. It’s time to pay serious attention to TikTok marketing.
Summary: TikTok Statistics
Here’s a summary of the TikTok statistics you need to know in 2023:
- TikTok has 1.08 billion monthly active users worldwide.
- The TikTok app has been downloaded over 2 billion times on the App Store and Google Play.
- TikTok was the most downloaded app in Apple’s App Store for Q2 2022, with more than 60 million downloads.
- Two-thirds of US teens aged 18 to 19 use TikTok.
- TikTok has been downloaded 611 million times in India, which is around 30% of the app’s total global downloads.
- TikTok users spend an average of 45.8 minutes per day on the app.
- TikTok is available in 155 countries and in 75 languages.
- 90% of all TikTok users access the app on a daily basis.
- In three years, the percentage of US adults using TikTok users grew 10 times.
- TikTok users watch 1 million videos on the app every day.
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Is there anything else you’d like to know about TikTok statistics and wish was included in this article?