TikTok launched in 2016 and no one could predict that it was about to take the world by storm.
Fast forward to now where TikTok is the fastest growing social media app in the world.
TikTok has accomplished in just over 4 years what it took Facebook and Instagram to do in 10 years.
The rapid growth is impressive and tells a lot about its audience.
These TikTok user statistics tell the whole story of the new social media giant and give you some insights into the app’s future.
What Will I Learn?
TikTok has experienced extremely fast growth since the beginning.
It quickly became one of the most popular social media platforms in the world challenging the likes of Facebook and Instagram.
Here are some of the key TikTok statistics you need to know:
As you can see TikTok has become a giant in the social media world and they don’t look like they will be slowing down anytime soon.
TikTok is acquiring new users at a significantly faster rate than any of the other major social media platforms in the world.
The following TikTok user statistics show that it is one of the fastest-growing apps… ever.
TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users as of September 2021.
For reference this is how many monthly active users the other major social media platforms currently have:
| Platform | Monthly Active Users |
|---|---|
| 2.9 Billion | |
| YouTube | 2.2 Billion |
| 1.4 Billion | |
| TikTok | 1 Billion |
| Snapchat | 500 Million |
| 480 Million | |
| 397 Million |
TikTok is the 4th largest social media platform in the world by monthly active users. It’s double the size of Snapchat and quickly catching up to Instagram.
What’s more?
There are 4.8 billion internet users in the world and 20.83% of them use TikTok.
It’s safe to say TikTok is here to stay.
How has TikTok done in the US?
Tiktok user statistics from eMarketer estimates that TikTok has 73.7 million monthly active users in the US alone. This is forecasted to reach 88.7 million by 2024.
If those estimates are correct TikTok will experience about a 20% growth in monthly active users over the next 2 years in the US.
Today the US has 267.6 million mobile internet users. These are people that regularly use the internet on their mobile phones.
37.36% of US mobile internet users access TikTok at least once a month.
TikTok has over 50 million daily active users. 18.68% of all Americans with mobile internet login to TikTok every single day. That’s quite the commitment to a social media app!
TikTok was created with the younger generation in mind. It’s no surprise they engage Gen Z so well and they have become their biggest user base.
In the US 37.3% of all Gen Z internet users log in to TikTok at least once per month.
Different countries have taken up TikTok at different rates.
TikTok certainly has a huge global audience but there are 3 countries that make up the majority of users.
TikTok and Douyin (TikTok’s name in China) are now in 141 countries out of a possible 155 total countries. That means that they have launched in 91% of all the countries they can possibly be in.
The TikTok app has also been translated into 39 different languages which help cater to the rapidly expanding global user base.
Remember: TikTok has only been around since 2016 which makes these TikTok statistics even more impressive.
The biggest country of users in the world goes to India. That’s right!
India has 611 million TikTok downloads to date with ⅓ of all smartphone users in India downloading the app.
In 2019 43.76% of all TikTok downloads came from India alone. Of the 738 million global downloads of TikTok that year, 323 million of them came from India.
The reason for the growth in India is because of the opportunity that it offers all users to easily showcase their creativity in different ways. People can create fun and engaging short videos around their interests and share them with the world.
China is the 2nd biggest country for downloads of Douyin (TikTok). They have a total of 196.6 million (excludes third-party installs) total downloads of the app.
It makes sense that China would have a large user base as the app was initially developed and launched in China by tech company ByteDance.
Douyin means “shaking sound” and the company adheres to much stricter laws in China than it does under the “TikTok” brand in the international market.
The United States takes 3rd position for most TikTok downloads.
TikTok has been downloaded over 165 million times since it was originally launched in America. Younger Americans have flocked to TikTok from other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Canada has the 4th largest amount of TikTok downloads with the UK taking 5th place.
TikTok has really found its home in younger users.
But more recently, as the app has grown in popularity worldwide, older users have started to take an interest.
Here’s a quick overview:
Additionally, between 2018 and 2020 growth of American adults using TikTok grew 5.5 times.
But overall, teenagers make up the largest group of active users on TikTok.
This is the breakdown of active users on TikTok by age group:
| Age Group | Active Users (%) |
|---|---|
| 10-19 | 25% |
| 20-29 | 22.4% |
| 30-39 | 21.7% |
| 40-49 | 20.3% |
| 50+ | 11% |
25% of TikTok’s active user accounts are aged 10-19 in the United States. But popularity has increased significantly in the young adults’ age group in recent years.
Active users aged 20-29 make up 22.4% followed closely by active users aged 30-39 making up 21.7%.
There is a significant drop off of active users aged 50+. This is expected to grow over time, similar to what has happened with Facebook and Instagram.
About 45% of all TikTok users in the US are Gen Z.
TikTok has a significantly larger female user base globally.
Here’s what the breakdown looks like:
| Gender | User Percentage (%) |
|---|---|
| Female | 60% |
| Male | 40% |
Did you know that 60% of all TikTok users worldwide are female, with 40% of the platform users being male?
On top of that, there are a lot of strong female content creators who have moved over to TikTok from Instagram.
Regional TikTok user statistics differentiate significantly. Each major region has also experienced growth a different times:
| Year | South-East Asia | North America | Latin America | Europe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 62 million | 28 million | 3 million | 21 million |
| 2019 | 130 million | 55 million | 10 million | 52 million |
| 2020 | 198 million | 105 million | 64 million | 98 million |
Latin America had a slow take-up of TikTok but exploded in terms of user base in 2020.
South-East Asia has the largest user base by almost double, but growth has started to slow compared to the other regions.
TikTok has become the most engaging social media app in the world.
These next TikTok engagement statistics show you just how much people love TikTok and how the app has grown in engagement over time.
Globally the average user spends 52 minutes on TikTok every day. About 90% of their worldwide users access TikTok on a daily basis.
One of the most important engagement metrics for all social media companies is average session length. It measures how long the average user spends on the platform every time they open and use the app.
The average session length on TikTok is 10 minutes 51 seconds. This is almost double Pinterest who comes in second place with an average session length of 5m36s.
When people open up TikTok their attention is engaged for far longer than any other social media platform. This in itself is a very important stat.
In 2019 TikTok had a 210% year-over-year increase in engagement time. The total time spent on TikTok by all users in 2019 was estimated to be over 68 billion hours.
Even though TikTok has exploded in growth, their engagement statistics are still very strong. So, if you want to expand your business’ marketing…Pay attention to TikTok!
The opportunity to build a large engaged audience organically on TikTok is right now.
This is almost 5 times as much as Instagram which has only 1.1% and destroys Twitter which has just 0.30%
As you can see TikTok has significantly better engagement which provides business owners and content creators with a bigger opportunity.
TikTok’s global engagement is really good. But how does it compare to US TikTok statistics?
The average adult TikTok user in America spends 33 minutes per day on the app.
This actually ranks it in 2nd place as Facebook adult users spend an average of 35 minutes per day.
Facebook still has a slight advantage over TikTok in the US, although this is expected to change as TikTok continues to grow in popularity:
That’s a massive win for TikTok – especially because their biggest competitor (Facebook) has experienced a significant decline in engagement.
The average US user opens TikTok 8 times per day.
From October 2019 to March 2020 TikTok has experienced significant consistent gains in monthly user engagement.
In October 2019 users spent an average of 442.9 minutes per month on TikTok.
Just 6 months later in March 2020 users spent almost double that at an average of 858 minutes per month.
That’s a big increase for such a short period!
| Month/Year | Avg. Minutes Spent On TikTok (per month) |
|---|---|
| October 2019 | 442.9 minutes |
| November 2019 | 526.1 minutes |
| December 2019 | 561.2 minutes |
| January 2020 | 680 minutes |
| February 2020 | 731.6 minutes |
| March 2020 | 858 minutes |
And what’s more impressive is the consistency of growth month to month. TikTok has continued to engage users and build a platform that keeps them coming back for more.
As of September 2021 TikTok has risen through the ranks to become the 7th most popular social media network worldwide.
| Social Network | Popularity (in millions) |
|---|---|
| 2,853 | |
| YouTube | 2,291 |
| 2,000 | |
| 1,386 | |
| Facebook Messenger | 1,300 |
| Weixin / WeChat | 1,242 |
| TikTok | 732 |
| 606 | |
| Douyin | 600 |
| Telegram | 550 |
The popularity of TikTok is arguably more impressive because of the speed at which it has grown. It took just over 4 years to achieve these results.
There is wide speculation that it will eventually enter the top 3 as older users embrace the platform more and more. This is what happened with both Facebook and Instagram.
Every social media platform tends to have content for specific industries that work better than others.
Although you could create content on TikTok for any category with a bit of creativity, some categories naturally work better.
| Category | Views (in billions) |
|---|---|
| Entertainment | 535 |
| Dance | 181 |
| Pranks | 79 |
| Fitness/sports | 57 |
| Home reno/DIY | 39 |
| Beauty/skincare | 33 |
| Fashion | 27 |
| Recipes/cooking | 18 |
| Life hacks/advice etc. | 13 |
| Pets | 10 |
| Outdoors | 2 |
Entertainment clearly works best on TikTok. Dance and pranks also tend to get good engagement and views.
If you are looking for a bit of inspiration then these are the top 10 content creators on TikTok with the most followers at the moment:
| Influencer | Followers (in Millions) |
|---|---|
| Charli d’Amelio | 125.6 |
| Khabane lame | 115 |
| Addison Rae | 84.8 |
| Bella Poarch | 83.4 |
| Zach King | 65.5 |
| Will Smith | 62 |
| TikTok | 57.5 |
| Dixie D’Amelio | 55.2 |
| Spencer X | 54.9 |
| Loren Gray | 54.1 |
Charli d’Amelio is known for dancing and became a star when she joined TikTok. Will Smith is a stand-out celebrity who hired someone to follow him around with a camera to create more content.
Planning on becoming a TikTok sensation?
This is how much money the top TikTok content creators make:
| Influencer | Earnings (USD) |
|---|---|
| Addison Rae | $5 million |
| Charlie D’Amelio | $4 million |
| Dixie D’Amelio | $2.9 million |
| Loren Gray | $2.6 million |
| Josh Richards | $1.5 million |
| Michael Le | $1.2 million |
| Spencer X | $1.2 million |
Brands are certainly ready to pay you to sponsor their products if you have a big enough (and engaged) following.
But the value that businesses and brands see in a TikTok post vs an Instagram post is very different.
It still pays more to be an influencer on Instagram at the moment. But as the TikTok platform grows you will likely see higher payouts for creative influencers.
Planning to use TikTok to market your business?
Facebook advertising has long been the gold standard for paid social media ads.
While that still remains true (for now), TikTok has been investing in their own advertising platform with a focus on ensuring quality and relevant ads.
These are the TikTok statistics you need to look at for paid marketing.
You can run TikTok ads and send traffic to:
You can also “boost” posts and hashtags to get extra reach for the content you create.
Creativity is what generates the most success on TikTok. And the platform gives you plenty of tools to help you market your business.
You can create branded:
You can embed these in your own videos so that people easily recognise your brand as they enjoy your TikTok content.
TikTok is also currently working on new augmented reality ads which could be a real game-changer. Currently ads are made up of video and audio.
With augmented reality, ads could be interactive. This opens up a ton of different possibilities for advertising in the future.
TikTok created its own advertising platform so all businesses can take advantage of the fast-growing social media network.
It will take some time to learn and TikTok ads are very unique compared to other social media advertising platforms. It’s recommended to hire experts in TikTok marketing and ads if you want to launch a campaign.
On top of that, TikTok currently offers $300 of free ad credit for new brands advertising on TikTok for the first time.
Engagement and users are one thing. But every business needs revenue to grow consistently. TikTok is certainly not short on revenue.
In 2020 TikTok brought in $33.4 billion in revenue.
| Year | Revenue (USD) |
|---|---|
| 2018 | $7.4 billion |
| 2019 | $17 billion |
| 2020 | $33.4 billion |
TikTok managed to more than double its revenue from 2018 to 2019. And in 2020 they almost doubled it again.
Who contributes all of this revenue?
Reports show that:
But this is where it gets interesting.
Only 5% of marketers in the US use TikTok for advertising. As TikTok grows and attracts more marketers from the US their revenue is likely to skyrocket.
To say that TikTok is just getting started with advertising is a huge understatement.
With a huge amount of users and revenue behind it…
How much is TikTok worth?
TikTok was valued at $50 billion by investors in 2020. This is based on parent company ByteDance raising $2 billion of new funding.
Today experts estimate TikTok will be worth up to $75+ billion.
The bottom line: The time for TikTok is now.
Now that you’ve read a complete round-up of the most important TikTok user statistics you understand the success of the platform. And there is one thing unmistakably clear about TikTok…
They know how to grow fast.
They also don’t look like slowing down anytime soon. TikTok is constantly taking advantage of new trends and giving its users all the tools needed to create great content.
And that’s just the user side of it.
TikTok has a host of new features it’s launching for businesses to run fun and profitable advertising campaigns.
If you are considering TikTok for marketing, now is the time to jump in. It will only get bigger from here!
Want more statistics posts? Take a look at these blogs:
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This piece grossly leaves out TikTok statistics for Africa. Literally the whole region. You’d think there is no TikTok in Africa entirely!
Hi Joy. We did not purposely leave out Africa. At the time of writing, we just couldn’t find accurate statistics about the use of TikTok in this region.