105 TikTok Statistics You Can’t Ignore: 2024 Usage, Impact & Concerns

We’ve come a long way in how we define our social media experience. Before, it was all snappy statuses and photos. And then came moments captured in 15-second stories, then memes. Now, with the rise of TikTok, social media is characterized by dancing and dazzling video transitions. The platform certainly expanded the way we enjoy social media. As such, it became the fastest growing social network in 2020, capturing the fancy of young social media users worldwide. And it looks to maintain its upward trajectory in the succeeding years.

This article notes down key TikTok statistics centered around the app’s usage, revenues, and audience. It also covers the app’s business platform as well as the impact of COVID-19 on TikTok’s usage. By reading, marketers and business owners will learn how effective TikTok is as a promotional channel. Moreover, they can also find specific features that could work best with brands and marketing plans.

General TikTok Statistics

The year 2020 was a historic year for TikTok. Not only was it able to carve out its own space in an already-crowded social media market, but the platform also set the record for the most app installs in one quarter. TikTok drew people in with the variety of flashy video content they can create. Users can put together video sequences to form transformation videos, often accompanied by music, dancing, art, or even food preparation. As recent TikTok statistics reveal, the app has gone on to shape the cultural sphere of today’s social media users.

Market Share and Revenue

• TikTok is currently valued at around $50 billion (Reuters, 2020).
• As for its 2020 revenue, TikTok earned an estimated $1 billion while its 2021 revenue is projected to exceed $6 billion (ValueTheMarkets, 2020).
• User spending on the app reached $128 million in January 2021, representing year-on-year growth of 380% (Internet Retailing, 2021).
• In addition, TikTok was the social app with the highest revenue for February 2021 with over $110 million in user spending. (Sensor Tower, 2021).
• TikTok also earned the highest revenue in the Apple App Store and placed 10th in the Google Play Store for February 2021 (Sensor Tower, 2021).
• Moreover, TikTok’s leading revenue source for February 2021 is China at 79%, followed by the US (8%) and Turkey (3%) (Sensor Tower, 2021).
• What’s more, TikTok was the highest-grossing app worldwide in 2020 as it collected $1.2 billion in user spending. This represents a 627% increase from that of 2019 (Sensor Tower, 2020).
• Meanwhile, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is valued at $140 billion as of April 2021 (Statista, 2021).
• According to a report by Morning Consult, TikTok was the 3rd fastest growing brand in the world in 2020, with a growth of 6.9% from January to November. It was behind only Zoom (15.1%) and Peacock (11.5%) (Morning Consult, 2020).

Number of Downloads

• TikTok has amassed 2.6 billion total downloads as of December 2020 (Sensor Tower, 2020).
• It was also the most downloaded app of 2020 in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store (appfigures, 2020).
• What’s more, TikTok set the record for the most app installs in one quarter with 315 million in the first quarter of 2020 (Sensor Tower, 2020).
• Moreover, the app recorded a total of more than 961 million downloads across both stores in 2020. (Sensor Tower, 2020).
• In addition, TikTok was the most downloaded non-gaming app in March 2021, placing 1st in the Apple App Store and 3rd in the Google Play Store. (Sensor Tower, 2021).
• Lastly, the app recorded 58 million downloads worldwide in March 2021 (DataReportal, 2021).

TikTok vs Other Social Media Networks

• Despite being a fairly new platform, TikTok is already the 3rd largest social media app in terms of the number of active users, behind only Facebook (2.79 billion) and Instagram (1.29 billion) (DataReportal, 2021).
• It is also the 6th largest social app in terms of active users, behind Facebook (2.79 billion), WhatsApp (2 billion), Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion), Instagram (1.29 billion), and WeChat (1.22 billion) (DataReportal, 2021).
• 99.7% of TikTok users also use other social networks (DataReportal, 2021).
• The social network most used by TikTok users is YouTube at 93.3%, followed by Facebook (85%), Instagram (84.2%), Twitter (62.5%), and Snapchat (47.7%) (DataReportal, 2021).
• Moreover, Tiktok is the 2nd most popular social app for US teens, with 29% listing it as their favorite app. The platform is behind Snapchat (34%) and ahead of Instagram (25%) (CNBC, 2020).
• However, Instagram receives the most engagement from US teens at 84%, followed by Snapchat (80%) and TikTok (69%) (CNBC, 2020).
• Meanwhile, YouTube has the highest share of users engaging with influencers at 47%, followed by Instagram (37%), Pinterest (17%), Snapchat (15%), and TikTok (14%) (Takumi, 2020).
• As of February 2021, only 21% of US adults use TikTok, firmly behind frontrunners YouTube (81%) and Facebook (69%) (Pew Research Center, 2021).

TikTok User Statistics

In its meteoric rise to become the hottest social network in 2020, TikTok’s domination has gone beyond the Asia Pacific as it has accumulated over 730 million users from all corners of the globe. According to the most recent trends in social media, the largest or

tion of its user base is composed of preteens, teens, and young adults, most of whom are women, but it has also drawn a significant share of male users. Moreover, if we focus on TikTok users by country, we can see huge surges in new installs from North America, Europe, and South America in 2021. It appears that 2021 is shaping up to be another milestone year for the social network.

Usage

• TikTok has 732 million monthly active users, which represents 12% of the global population aged 13 years old and above (DataReportal, 2021).
• On average, TikTok users spend 13.3 hours per month or 43.72 minutes per day on the platform (DataReportal, 2021).
• In addition, the platform has received 33,834,069 ratings from users, with an average score of 4.5 (apptrace, 2021).
• As of February 2021, TikTok has 11.98 million daily active users on Android (Airnow, 2021).
• It also has 21.81 million daily active users on iOS (Airnow, 2021).
• TikTok’s user penetration in the US is projected to grow from 17.3% in 2019 to 39.3% in 2024. It currently sits at 34.2% (eMarketer, 2021).
• Moreover, in the US, 32.9% of TikTok users are light users, 30.3% are heavy users, 23.5% are inactive, and 13.5% are middle users (App Ape, 2021).

Users by Age and Gender

• 50.1% of TikTok’s global users are female while 49.9% are male (DataReportal, 2021).
• Similarly, 61% of  American TikTok users are female while 39% are male (App Ape, 2021).
• Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, 65% of users are female and 35% male (Bloomberg, 2020).
• Female users also dominate the TikTok market in Spain as they account for 75% of the user population. Males comprise 25% (Bloomberg, 2020).
• Norway and Sweden likewise follow the same trend, with the female users in both countries (56%) outnumbering the males (44%) (Bloomberg, 2020)
• The largest share of US TikTok users belongs to the 10-19 age bracket at 25%. It is followed by 20-29 (22.4%), 30-39 (21.7%), 40-49 (20.3%), and 50 and over (11%) (App Ape, 2021).

Users by Country

• TikTok is available in more than 150 countries and 75 languages (Investopedia, 2021).
• As of April 2021, TikTok also belongs to the top 25 most installed apps in 139 countries (apptrace, 2021).
• It also has 100 million quarterly active users in the US (CNBC, 2020).
• Meanwhile, TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, has 600 million active users (CNBC, 2020).
• Similarly, the app has 100 million active users in Europe. Of whom, 17 million are from the UK, 11 million are from France, 10.7 million are from Germany, 9.8 million are from Italy, and 8.8 million are from Spain (Bloomberg, 2020).
• Brazil had the most TikTok downloads from the Google Play Store in February 2021 at 1.89 million. The second to fifth spots are occupied by Russia (1.86 million), the US (1.63 million), Mexico (1.47 million), and Pakistan (760,430) (Airnow, 2021).
• On the other hand, the US held the leading number of TikTok downloads on the Apple App Store in February 2021 with 6.9 million downloads, followed by Russia (636,670), Canada (505,760), the UK (503.610), and France (465,200) (Airnow, 2021).
• As for the countries with the largest growth in TikTok downloads from the Google Play Store in February 2021, Poland is in first place at 88.6%, followed by Norway (52.4%), Sweden (33.2%), Netherlands (32.1%), and Denmark (25.1%) (Airnow, 2021).
• Meanwhile, Peru posted the largest growth in TikTok downloads from the Apple App Store in the same period at 120.4%. It is followed by Ecuador (40%), the US (16.2%), Poland (14.3%), and Sri Lanka (10%) (Airnow, 2021).
• The country with the largest TikTok user growth in 2020 was Norway at 248.7%, followed by Russia (140.9%), Italy (104.5%), Netherlands (94.2%), France (88.7%), and the US (85.3%) (eMarketer, 2020).
• The countries with the highest number of removed videos on TikTok for violating community guidelines in the second half of 2020 are the US (11.77 million), Pakistan (8.21 million), Brazil (7.51 million), Russia (4.57 million), and Indonesia (3.86 million) (TikTok, 2021).

Other Demographics

• In the US, Hispanic Americans have the highest share of TikTok users at 31%, followed by African Americans (30%) and Caucasians (18%) (Pew Research Center, 2021).
• Adult TikTok usage is highest with those earning $30,000-$49,000 annually at 29%, followed by less than $30,000 (22%), $50,000-$74,999 (20%), and $75,000 and above (20%) (Pew Research Center, 2021).
• In terms of educational attainment, those who received some college education own the highest portion of adult TikTok users at 24%. Next are high school graduates and those without a high school diploma (21%) and college graduates (19%) (Pew Research Center, 2021).
•  As for the area of residence, people living in urban areas have the highest share of TikTok users at 24%, followed by suburban (20%) and rural (18%) (Pew Research Center, 2021).

Usage Behavior

• The leading reason for using Tiktok is to find entertaining content, which accounts for 60% of users. It is followed by filling up spare time (45%), finding new ideas or inspiration (28%), expressing oneself (28), and learning how to do new things (24%) (Digital Information World, 2020).
• In addition, at any given time, 64% of users are watching a video, 61% are liking a video, 40% are following another user, 36% are commenting on a video, and 32% are sharing a video (Digital Information World, 2020).
• TikTok’s 2020 US Elections user guide received 17.99 million views (TikTok, 2021).
• The most prominent vibe given off by TikTok content is funny (75%), followed by creative (61%), trending (45%), informative (32%), and motivational (32%) (GlobalWebIndex, 2020).
• Moreover, users spend 75% of their time discovering new content on the platform’s “For You” page (Social Media Examiner, 2020).
• Also, 10% of TikTok users participate in a hashtag challenge each month (GlobalWebIndex, 2020).
• 22% of users use the platform to stay in touch with friends (GlobalWebIndex, 2020).

Influencers on TikTok

Like most social networks, TikTok hosts many influencers who belong to a diverse range of niches. They either start trends or popularize the ones launched by the brands that hired them. And they receive a lot of engagement from regular users. With this, statistics on mobile marketing show that micro-influencers receive the most engagement, but brands tend to gravitate toward those with mid-sized followings.

• TikTok had a total of 106,104 influencers in 2020 (Influencer MarketingHub, 2021).
• Influencers with a following of 1,000 to 5,000 make up the largest share of TikTok influencers at 36.78%, followed by 5,000 to 20,000 (35.84%), 20,000 to 100,000 (20.97%), 100,000 to 500,000 (5.25%), 600,000 to 1 million (0.6%), over 1 million (0.56%) (HypeAuditor, 2020).
• Interestingly, micro-influencers or those with less than 15,000 followers receive the most engagement on TikTok, at a rate of 17.96%. This is far greater than that of mega-influencers or those with over 1 million followers (4.96%) (Influencer MarketingHub, 2021).
• However, the most preferred TikTok influencers by brands are the mid-influencers or those with 100,000 to 500,000 followers, with a selection rate of 32.5% (Influencer MarketingHub, 2021).
• Meanwhile, 45% of marketers use TikTok influencers for their campaigns (Influencer MarketingHub, 2021).
• 95% of TikTok users in the US, UK, and Germany engage with influencers each week (Takumi, 2020).

Impact of TikTok

There is a wide variety of TikTok users in the world, and the most prolific ones set the standards for others to emulate. TikTok stars like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae Easterling have made a fortune out of their content and have attracted country-sized followings. Meanwhile, there are also posts on the platform that have become benchmarks on how to draw audiences. Many of them leveraged the app’s video editing capabilities to full effect so that viewers are thoroughly entertained.

Most Followed TikTok Users

• As of April 2021, the most followed personality on TikTok is Charli D’Amelio with 113.5 million followers, followed by Addison Rae Easterling (79.8 million), Bella Poarch (63.2 million), Zach King (58.8 million), and Spencer X (52.6 million) (Socialtracker, 2021).
• Charli D’Amelio has also acquired the most likes among all accounts with 9.2 billion, followed by Krissy Malloy (8.6 billion), Addison Rae (5.1 billion), Dixie D’Amelio (2.9 billion), and Loren Gray (2.8 billion) (Socialtrackeer, 2021).
• Meanwhile, user8413989493282 has the most posts with 994,200, followed by GodZion (37,400), Harriet Pavlou (33,900), DOGS (24,200), An Old Agony (23,600), and The Charlie Plush Official (23,600) (Socialtracker, 2021).
• As for the most followed brands, TikTok leads the pack with 52.8 million, followed by Flighthouse (27.6 million) and TikTok India (24.5 million) (Social Blade, 2021).
• The highest-earning TikTok star is Addison Rae Easterling with an estimated $5 million, followed by Charli 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), and Spencer X ($1.2 million) (Forbes, 2020).
• As for TikTok’s Chinese counterpart, Douyin, the most followed personality is Chen He with 72.9 million followers, followed by Andy Lau (57.43 million), Dilireba Dilmurat (52.77 million), Tu Lei (44.19 million), and G.E.M. (42.24 million) (Chanmama, 2021).

Most Popular TikTok Posts

• The TikTok post with the most likes is Bella Poarch’s “To the 🐝 🐝 🐝” with 48.4 million, followed by Franek Bielak’s “😳This is one of my best drawings” (47 million), Nick Luciano’s “And no it’s not a green screen. 😂 run it up!” (46 million), Billie Eilish’s “#TimeWarpScan” (37.2 million), and British Promise Cats’ “Repost 😇” (34.7 million) (Poarch, 2020; Bielak, 2020; Luciano, 2021; Eilish, 2020; British Promise Cats, 2020).
• As for the most popular content category, entertainment dominates most searches at 443.3 billion hashtag views, followed by dance (150.3 billion), pranks (54 billion), sports/fitness (43.3 billion), and DIY/home renovation (28.6 billion) (Mediakix, 2020).
• The most viral TikTok post in 2020 was Bella Poarch doing M to B, followed by doggface208 skateboarding, Caitlin Reilly’s post on “the coworker you love to hate,” Jalaiah Harmon dancing at the NBA All-Star Game, and Will Smith wiping a screen (TikTok, 2020).
• Meanwhile, the top hashtags for 2020 were #YouHaveTo, #BlindingLights, #TwoPrettyBestFriends, #HurtMyFeelings, and #RandomThings (TikTok, 2020).

TikTok for Business

TikTok is not all about dancing, lipsyncing, and doing silly things. In fact, the platform has become an effective tool for business and marketing. Marketers have begun to leverage the platform, and it has yielded fruitful results for a lot of big brands. While the starting cost of basic ads is affordable, running a campaign is quite costly. But, based on the latest TikTok for Business statistics, going with one will likely bring significant returns.

• The cost of a TikTok ad starts at $10 per CPM or cost per 1,000 views (Rankon Technologies, 2021).
• Also, the minimum charge for an ad campaign on TikTok starts at $500 (Rankon Technologies, 2021).
• Meanwhile, for ad groups, the minimum budget is $50 (Rankon Technologies, 2021).
• Moreover, the duration of TikTok ads ranges from 5 to 60 seconds (Rankon Technologies, 2021).
• There are five payment methods on TikTok: credit card, debit card, net banking, BHIM UPI, and Paytm Wallet (Rankon Technologies, 2021).
• 26% of US brands that use or are aware of TikTok leverage the platform to sell (Digital Information World, 2020).
• Surprisingly, only 14% of TikTok users use the platform to find brands (GlobalWebIndex, 2020).
• 16% of marketers plan to increase their use of TikTok for campaigns (Social Media Examiner, 2020).
• In addition, 30% of marketers want to learn more about the platform (Social Media Examiner, 2020).
• 66% of marketers who leveraged TikTok saw success in their strategies (NCR, 2020).

TikTok for Business Use Cases

• Chipotle sold more than 802,000 sides of guacamole, thanks to its #GuacDance challenge on TikTok, which had almost 430 million views and drove 250,000 submissions (Chipotle Mexican Grill, 2019).
• Similarly, skincare brand Clean & Clear launched its #UnbottleApnaSwag challenge, which resulted in an 11,000 increase in followers, 1.96 billion video views, 2.62 million submitted videos, and a 9% growth in purchase intention (TikTok for Business).
• Likewise, Universal Pictures launched its #FindYourMagic challenge in 2018, resulting in 1.3 million likes on influencer videos, over 19,000 submitted videos, and an 11,000 increase in followers in six days (TikTok for Business).
• Guess also released a branded hashtag challenge of its own, #InMyDenim, on TikTok. The six-day campaign led to 10.5 million video views, an increased engagement rate of 14.3%, an increase in followers of over 12,000, and a CTR of 16.5% (TikTok for Business)
• Samsung’s #GalaxyA on TikTok led to 30 million video views (Collabary, 2019).
• BMW and Ralph Lauren followed suit and launched their own TikTok hashtag campaigns, which resulted in 7 million and 500,000 video views, respectively (Collabary, 2019).

Concerns about TikTok

The media attention on TikTok is not solely focused on its successes. After all, the app has been the subject of controversies, the most prevalent of which is data privacy. Concerns over the Chinese government potentially using the platform to spy on the global community sprung up and have led to a ban in India and a prospective one in the US. Of course, this assertion has yet to be proven, but nevertheless, many former users chose to be on the side of caution.

• According to a 2020 survey by WhistleOut, 58% of Americans fear that TikTok is spying on its users (WhistleOut, 2020).
• And 40% of Americans think that TikTok is listening in on their conversations (PCMag, 2020).
• What’s more, 40% of the respondents deleted TikTok due to privacy concerns (WhistleOut, 2020).
• With this, US adults were split regarding former President Donald Trump’s proposed TikTok ban, with 29% agreeing and 33% disagreeing (Morning Consult, 2020).
• However, Gen Zers (59%) and millennials (47%) firmly opposed the US TikTok ban (Morning Consult, 2020).
• Interestingly, 83% of TikTok users are not concerned about the Chinese government potentially using the app to spy on users (Kiss 95.1, 2020).
• TikTok removed 89.13 million videos in the second half of 2020 for violating its community guidelines. Of which, 35% violated the minor safety policy, 20.5% had adult nudity and sexual activities, 17.9% contained illegal activities, 8.1% had graphic and violent content, and 6.6% violated the anti-bullying policy (TikTok, 2021).
• TikTok also received the most user data requests from the US government in the second half of 2020 with 546, followed by India (104), the UK (91), Israel (73), and Germany (70) (TikTok, 2021).
• Before TikTok was banned in India in 2020, the app had 610 million downloads and 600 million active Indian users, accounting for about 44% of the country’s population (Slate, 2020).

Effects of COVID-19 on TikTok Usage

COVID-19 may have paralyzed businesses and ravaged industries. But in TikTok’s case, the pandemic served as a driving force for its massive growth in 2020 and its continuing growth in 2021. Due to the global lockdowns, people were compelled to look for entertainment on their mobile devices. And TikTok became the primary beneficiary of this occurrence. As the number of social media users grew, so did the global population of TikTok users.

• During the early and middle stages of COVID-19 (Q1-Q3 2020), TikTok’s user base grew by 75% (Forbes, 2020).
• Also in the same period, one in six Americans were TikTok users (Forbes, 2020).
• TikTok set the record for the most number of app installs in one quarter (315 million) at the start of COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2020 (Sensor Tower, 2020).
• Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the number of TikTok influencers increased by 70,576 (Influencer MarketingHub, 2021).
• In addition, TikTok usage by 15-25-year-olds in the US rose by 180% during the pandemic (AudienceProject, 2020).
• As such, 27% of Gen Z users created more TikTok videos during the lockdown (GlobalWebIndex, 2020).
• In the second half of 2020, TikTok’s COVID-19 information hub was viewed 2.62 billion times (TikTok, 2021).
• Moreover, TikTok’s public service announcements related to COVID-19 were viewed 38 billion times in the same period (TikTok, 2021).
• TikTok also removed 51,507 videos that spread misinformation on COVID-19 in the same period (TikTok, 2021).
• Of the videos removed, 86% were erased before they were reported, 87% were deleted within 24 hours, and 71% had no views (TikTok, 2021).

What are the emerging trends in TikTok content creation?

As TikTok’s popularity continues to grow, the platform’s content evolves, reflecting changing user interests and global trends. Some of the latest trends shaping content creation on TikTok include:

• Edutainment and Skill-Based Content: TikTok users are increasingly sharing educational yet entertaining videos, known as “edutainment.” From quick recipes to short DIY tutorials, this type of content caters to users looking to learn something new in a fun way.
• Health and Wellness Content: Driven by a rising focus on health, TikTok has seen an increase in content related to fitness challenges, mental health discussions, and healthy eating tips, engaging users with wellness-oriented trends.
• Sustainability and Eco-Friendly Tips: As global awareness about the environment grows, TikTok content is seeing a surge in topics around sustainable living, such as upcycling, zero-waste lifestyle tips, and eco-friendly hacks.
• Product Reviews and ‘Unboxing’ Videos: Many users now turn to TikTok for product reviews and first impressions. Unboxing and product demonstrations have become popular, helping potential buyers make informed choices.

These trends indicate how TikTok remains responsive to its diverse user base, continually adapting to offer content that is both engaging and relevant to current interests and global concerns.

Why TikTok Statistics Matter

TikTok represents boundless youthful energy, with its manic transformation videos, dance-related content, fashion-themed posts, and other types of content built to entertain. As such, the application’s number of users ballooned to 732 million, as it experienced a 75% increase in downloads in the first three quarters of 2020. The majority of the globe’s population comprises millennials and Gen Zers, which is reflected by the app’s user base. TikTok is particularly popular with the younger generations, including preteens, and has captivated many female users.

If we take a closer look at the data, we can posit that the social network is a character study of youngsters all across the globe, along with their interests and preferences. As recent TikTok statistics suggest, marketers and business owners have only scratched the surface of what they can do with the platform in regard to increasing returns and brand awareness. And many of those who gambled managed to reap success.

With this, marketers and business users can leverage branded hashtag challenges to not only draw more eyes to brands and their products but also to associate the promoted items with the general emotions evoked by the app—happiness and creativity. An effective TikTok campaign shapes how brands and products are viewed by the markets, influencing a potential surge in followers and ultimately, buyers.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on how you can make TikTok and the latest statistics surrounding the platform work for you. To know more about leveraging social media for promotions, you can read our comprehensive guide on the best social media management software tools.

Key Insights

• Rapid Growth: TikTok experienced explosive growth in 2020, becoming the third-largest social media app with over 730 million users, and recording the most app installs in one quarter with 315 million in Q1 2020.
• Revenue Increase: TikTok’s revenue skyrocketed, earning an estimated $1 billion in 2020 and projected to exceed $6 billion in 2021. It was the highest-grossing app worldwide in 2020 with $1.2 billion in user spending.
• User Engagement: TikTok users are highly engaged, spending an average of 13.3 hours per month on the platform. The most popular content includes entertaining, creative, and trending videos.
• Demographics: The platform’s user base is evenly split between males and females, with a significant proportion of users being young, particularly in the 10-19 age bracket.
• Influencer Impact: TikTok is a hub for influencers, with micro-influencers receiving the highest engagement rates. Brands are increasingly leveraging influencers for marketing campaigns.
• Global Reach: TikTok is available in over 150 countries and 75 languages, with significant user growth in countries like Norway, Russia, and the US.
• Business Potential: TikTok offers substantial marketing opportunities, with brands using hashtag challenges and other campaign strategies to engage users and boost sales.
• COVID-19 Influence: The pandemic significantly boosted TikTok’s user base and activity, with a 75% increase in downloads and a surge in content creation during lockdowns.
• Privacy Concerns: Despite privacy concerns and potential bans in countries like the US and India, the majority of users remain unconcerned about data privacy issues.

FAQ

1. What was TikTok’s revenue in 2020 and its projected revenue for 2021? TikTok earned an estimated $1 billion in 2020 and is projected to exceed $6 billion in 2021.
2. How many downloads did TikTok have in 2020? TikTok amassed 2.6 billion total downloads by December 2020, with 961 million downloads in 2020 alone.
3. Who are the most followed personalities on TikTok? As of April 2021, Charli D’Amelio is the most followed TikTok personality with 113.5 million followers, followed by Addison Rae with 79.8 million followers.
4. What is the primary reason users engage with TikTok? The leading reason for using TikTok is to find entertaining content, accounting for 60% of users.
5. How has COVID-19 impacted TikTok usage? The pandemic significantly boosted TikTok’s user base, with a 75% increase in downloads during the early and middle stages of COVID-19 (Q1-Q3 2020) and increased content creation.
6. What are the demographics of TikTok users in the US? In the US, the largest share of TikTok users is in the 10-19 age bracket at 25%, followed by 20-29 (22.4%), 30-39 (21.7%), 40-49 (20.3%), and 50 and over (11%).
7. What are some successful TikTok marketing campaigns? Successful campaigns include Chipotle’s #GuacDance challenge, Clean & Clear’s #UnbottleApnaSwag challenge, and Guess’s #InMyDenim challenge, all of which resulted in millions of views and increased brand engagement.
8. What are the most popular content categories on TikTok? The most popular content category is entertainment, with 443.3 billion hashtag views, followed by dance, pranks, sports/fitness, and DIY/home renovation.
9. How do brands benefit from using TikTok? Brands benefit from TikTok by leveraging its high engagement rates, running successful hashtag challenges, and using influencers to boost brand awareness and sales.
10. What concerns have been raised about TikTok? Concerns about TikTok include data privacy issues and potential government surveillance, leading to bans in some countries like India and proposed bans in the US.

References:

1. Ahmed, A. (2020, September 9). Why Consumers And Brands Use TikTok: 60% Consumers Use The App To Find Entertaining Content, And 34% Brands Use It To Communicate With Customers. Retrieved from Digital Information World
2. Airnow (2021, March). Countries with the highest growth of TikTok downloads from the Apple App Store in February 2021. Retrieved from Airnow
3. Airnow (2021, March). Countries with the highest growth of TikTok downloads from the Google Play Store in February 2021. Retrieved from Airnow
4. Airnow (2021, March). Number of daily active TikTok users via Android worldwide as of February 2021. Retrieved from Airnow
5. Airnow (2021, March). Number of daily active TikTok users via iOS worldwide as of February 2021. Retrieved from Airnow
6. Airnow (2021, March). Number of TikTok downloads from the Apple App store worldwide in February 2021, by country. Retrieved from Airnow
7. Airnow (2021, March). Number of TikTok downloads from the Google Play store worldwide in February 2021, by country. Retrieved from Airnow
8. App Ape (2021, April). Distribution of TikTok users in the United States as of March 2021, by age group. Retrieved from App Ape
9. App Ape (2021, April). Distribution of TikTok users in the United States as of March 2021, by gender. Retrieved from App Ape
10. App Ape (2021, April). Distribution of TikTok users in the United States as of March 2021, by usage frequency. Retrieved from App Ape
11. apptrace (2021, April 12). TikTok. Retrieved from apptrace
12. AudienceProject (2020, June). Share of individuals using TikTok during the coronavirus outbreak in the United States in 2020. Retrieved from AudienceProject
13. Bielak, F. (2020, December 29). 😳This is one of my best drawings. Retrieved from TikTok
14. British Promise Cats (2020, June 18). Repost 😇. Retrieved from TikTok
15. Cameron (2020, August 6). Survey Finds Majority Of People Want To Use Tik Tok And Don’t Care About Security Concerns. Retrieved from Kiss 95.1
16. Chan, J. (2021, April 5). Top Apps Worldwide for March 2021 by Downloads. Retrieved from Sensor Tower
17. Chan, J. (2021, March 3). Top Grossing Apps Worldwide for February 2021. Retrieved from Sensor Tower
18. Chanmama (2021, April). Number of fans of the most popular celebrities on Douyin (TikTok) in China as of April 7, 2021. Retrieved from Chanmama
19. Chipotle Mexican Grill (2019, August 1). Chipotle’s National Avocado Day Celebrations Smash Records. Retrieved from PR Newswire
20. Choudhury, S. (2020, September 16). The Chinese version of TikTok now has 600 million daily active users. Retrieved from CNBC
21. Collabary (2019, September 19). 4 TikTok Hashtag Challenges To Learn From. Retrieved from Collabary
22. Cohen, J. (2020, October 2). Americans Want Facebook and TikTok Banned Over Privacy Concerns. Retrieved from PCMag
23. Dsouza, D. (2021, February 20). What Is TikTok? Retrieved from Investopedia
24. Eilish, B. (2020, November 12). #TimeWarpScan. Retrieved from TikTok
25. eMarketer (2020, December 28). TikTok’s user base will increase by triple-digit percentages in some countries. Retrieved from eMarketer
26. HypeAuditor (2020, July). Distribution of TikTok followers in the United States as of July 2020, by number of followers. Retrieved from HypeAuditor
27. Ilumba, A. (2020, September 24). Most Americans Think Big Tech Is Spying On Them. Retrieved from WhistleOut
28. Influencer MarketingHub (2021, February 15). The State of Influencer Marketing 2021: Benchmark Report. Retrieved from Influencer MarketingHub
29. Kemp, S. (2021, January 27). DIGITAL 2021: GLOBAL OVERVIEW REPORT. Retrieved from DataReportal
30. Koetsier, J. (2020, September 14). Massive TikTok Growth: Up 75% This Year, Now 33X More Users Than Nearest Direct Competitor. Retrieved from Forbes
31. Luciano, N. (2021, February 24). And no it’s not a green screen. 😂 run it up! Retrieved from TikTok
32. Mackay, K. (2020, October 8). TikTok IPO – Will it happen and if so, at what valuation? Retrieved from ValueTheMarkets
33. Mediakix (2020, June). Most popular content categories on TikTok worldwide as of June 2020, by number of hashtag views. Retrieved from Mediakix
34. Michaeli, A. (2020, December 11). The Most Downloaded Apps Worldwide in 2020. Retrieved from appfigures
35. Moran, S. (2020, September 2). A byte-sized guide to TikTok and the new social media. Retrieved from GlobalWebIndex
36. Morning Consult (2020). THE FASTEST GROWING BRANDS OF 2020. Retrieved from Morning Consult
37. NCR (2020, December 22). TikTok for business: Success stories of brands using short videos to reach new audiences. Retrieved from NCR
38. Pahwa, N. (2020, August 7). What Indians Lost When Their Government Banned TikTok. Retrieved from Slate
39. Pederson, R. (2020, April 21). How to Create Your First TikTok Video. Retrieved from Social Media Examiner
40. Pew Research Center (2021, April 7). Social Media Fact Sheet. Retrieved from Pew Research Center
41. Piacenza, J. (2020, July 9). Public Divided on TikTok Ban as U.S. Considers Clampdown on Chinese Social Media Apps. Retrieved from Morning Consult
42. Poarch, B. (2020, August 18). To the 🐝 🐝 🐝. Retrieved TikTok
43. Rankon Technologies (2021, March 16). TikTok Advertising: How to Advertise On TikTok & How Much Do TikTok Ads Cost? Retrieved from Rankon Technologies
44. Rodriguez, S. (2020, October 6). TikTok passes Instagram as second-most popular social app for U.S. teens. Retrieved from CNBC
45. Sherman, A. (2020, August 24). TikTok reveals detailed user numbers for the first time. Retrieved from CNBC
46. Skeldon, P. (2021, February 24). TikTok user spending up by nearly 400% in January 2021 to $128m as it becomes the social site of choice. Retrieved from Internet Retailing
47. Social Blade (2021). TOP 100 MOST FOLLOWED TIKTOK ACCOUNTS (SORTED BY FOLLOWERS COUNT). Retrieved from Social Blade
48. Socialtracker (2021, April 22). Top TikTok Users Most followers. Retrieved from Socialtracker
49. Statista (2021, April). Leading unicorns worldwide as of April 2021. Retrieved from Statista
50. Stelzner, M. (2020, May). 2020 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING INDUSTRY REPORT. Retrieved from Social Media Examiner
51. Stokel-Walker, C. (2020, September 30). TikTok Sweeps Britain But Norwegians Watch More Videos. Retrieved from Bloomberg
52. Takumi (2020). Into the Mainstream: Influencer Marketing in Society. Retrieved from Takumi
53. TikTok (2021, February). Number of user data requests issued to TikTok from federal agencies and governments during 2nd half 2020, by country. Retrieved from TikTok
54. TikTok (2020, December 2). The Year on TikTok: Top 100. Retrieved from TikTok
55. TikTok (2021, February 24). TIKTOK TRANSPARENCY REPORT. Retrieved from TikTok
56. TikTok for Business. Clean & Clear. Retrieved from TikTok for Business
57. TikTok for Business. Guess. Retrieved from TikTok for Business
58. TikTok for Business. Universal Pictures. Retrieved from TikTok for Business
59. Wang, E., Wu, K., & Zhu, J. (2020, July 29). Exclusive: ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50 billion in takeover bid – sources. Retrieved from Reuters
60. Williamson, D. (2021, January 7). US Social Trends for 2021. Retrieved from eMarketer

By Louie Andre

B2B & SaaS market analyst and senior writer for FinancesOnline. He is most interested in project management solutions, believing all businesses are a work in progress. From pitch deck to exit strategy, he is no stranger to project business hiccups and essentials. He has been involved in a few internet startups including a digital route planner for a triple A affiliate. His advice to vendors and users alike? "Think of benefits, not features."