Digital 2022: TikTok’s Rapid Rise Continues
Data in our new Digital 2022 Global Overview Report confirms the hype: TikTok is already huge, and it’s still growing quickly.
We only started reporting TikTok audience figures in October 2021, so we’re currently unable to provide insights into year-on-year change.
However, the numbers for quarter-on-quarter growth are already impressive, with data published in the company’s own tools indicating that TikTok ad reach has jumped by 7.3 percent in the past 90 days alone.
The latest figures reveal worldwide ad reach of 885 million, although it’s important to stress that this figure doesn’t include users below the age of 18.
That 885 million figure is 60 million higher than the number we reported in our October report, suggesting that TikTok has been adding an average of more than 650,000 new users every day over the past 3 months – that’s almost 8 new users every second.
Understanding the numbers
Due to what the company describes as “data security requirements”, Bytedance’s tools only publish ad reach data for audiences aged 18 and above, even though marketers can target ads to users aged 13 and above
It’s also important to highlight that our figures don’t include data for Douyin – Bytedance’s “TikTok for China” – which the company reports separately.
Meanwhile, when comparing TikTok to other platforms – especially Instagram – it’s worth remembering that TikTok is still banned in India, which typically represents the largest individual country market for many other social platforms.
For added context, China and India account for 36 percent of the world’s total population, so not being present in these two countries obviously has an impact on TikTok’s figures for share of total global population.
Furthermore, TikTok’s tools only report ad-reach data for a selection of the world’s remaining countries, so total global reach is potentially much higher than the available data suggest.
None of these issues seem to be hampering TikTok’s current growth of course, but this context makes TikTok’s success even more impressive.
TikTok’s demographics
Looking at some of the platform’s more nuanced data, it’s interesting to note that 57 percent of TikTok’s worldwide audience aged 18+ is female.
As you might expect, TikTok’s audience also skews heavily towards younger demographics, with users aged 18 to 24 accounting for almost 43 percent of the platform’s total audience aged 18 and above.
It’s also interesting to see which countries have seen the quickest uptake of TikTok.
The latest data reveal that the platform has had particular success across the Middle East and South-East Asia.
However, it’s worth highlighting that the ad reach figures published in Bytedance’s own tools also suggest that more than half of all adults aged 18 and above in the United States and Mexico already use TikTok.
Despite some impressive early momentum in Japan, TikTok’s audience in Japan is still below the global average, as is the case in South Korea.
However, these figures compare users with figures for the total population aged 18 and above, and given that both Japan and South Korea have some of the highest median ages in the world, it’s perhaps less surprising to see them at the lower end of this ranking.
Time spent using TikTok
Data from App Annie reveals that people are spending a considerable amount of time on TikTok too.
The company’s latest analysis of TikTok’s Android app users reveals that the typical global TikTok user now spends an average of 19.6 hours per month using the platform.
However, this figure rises to 27.3 hours per month in the UK, meaning that the country’s users now spend more than a full day each month watching short videos on TikTok.
For comparison, global TikTok users now spend as much time using the platform’s Android app as global Facebook users spend using Facebook’s Android app.
However, while Facebook’s monthly average has remained flat over the past year, App Annie reports that the time spent using TikTok’s Android app has jumped by 48 percent.
That means that the typical global TikTok user spent a full 6 hours and 20 minutes more using TikTok each month in 2021 than they did in 2020, so its user base isn’t the only TikTok datapoint that’s worthy of headlines.
So, all the signs point to another year of big growth for TikTok in 2022.
Want to learn how TikTok compares with other social media platforms? Check out our full Digital 2022 Global Overview Report by clicking here.
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