TikTok reaches 1 billion global users
Video sharing phenomenon TikTok has hit a global milestone..
Its chief operating officer Vanessa Pappas announced on September 27: “Our global TikTok community is now more than 1 billion people strong.
“That means that over 1 billion people around the world now come to TikTok every month to be entertained as they learn, laugh, or discover something new, like sports, music, arts and culture, fashion, DIY and more.
“That’s a billion people every month watching and sharing each others’ creativity. So on behalf of the TikTok team, I want to say thank you.”
TikTok took five years to reach the monthly active users (MAUs) milestone, which makes it the quickest of its rivals.
Facebook did it in 2012, eight years after its 2004 launch (it hit 2.8 billion this year).
Instagram caught up in June 2018 and YouTube in 2013. Both also took eight years.
The two platforms launched TikTok copyists, respectively Reels and Shorts, to cash in. Snapchat introduced Spotlight.
It was not surprising, given TikTok’s impressive growth. It was at 689,174,209 MAUs at the end of July 2020, as it claimed in its lawsuit filed against the Trump administration which unsuccessfully tried to close it down in the US.
Three months later, in October, the figure was 732 million.
In August, app store intelligence service Sensor Tower reported TikTok’s MAUs were up 25% compared to the same month in 2020.
TikTok has managed its growth without being in Google’s search engine.
But that’s going to change, with Google in talks with Chinese owner ByteDance as part of its strategy to keep its search engine relevant.
TikTok’s biggest markets are the US (100 million last year), Europe, Brazil and Southeast Asia.
Current figures for Australia are unavailable, but it has shown strong growth in this market.
Research company Roy Morgan reported last October it had grown by 52.4% to close in on 2.5 million in the first half of 2020.
In Australia, 70% of its users are Generation Alpha and Generation Z, and 60% are females.