[vc_row enable_container=”st3″ section_back_opt=”light-bg-2″ row_padding_top=”top-padding-30″ row_padding_bottom=”no-padding-bottom”][vc_column][xen_text text_style=”p-style-medium”]Since TikTok was launched in September 2016 from ByteDance developers (who previously co-founded the short lived app Vine), TikTok is currently the 7th most downloaded mobile app of the decade*.
MILLIONS OF ENGAGED USERS
TikTok has more than 500 MILLION active users worldwide, ranking them 9th in popularity compared to other social network sites, such as Snapchat, Twitter and Pinterest. A huge 41% of TikTok users fall into the Generation Z demographic, particularly 16-24 years old, who on average spend around 52 minutes a day watching TikTok.
The app is most popular in India and the US, shortly followed by the UK. It is estimated that there are currently around 7 MILLION active TikTok users in the UK (compared to 44 MILLION active facebook users). TikTok has recognised the UK as a strategic market and is looking to increase their rapid growth by launching digital campaigns and paid social in order to target the millennial generation and other wider audiences. In return, this means that campaigns similar to those run on Instagram aren’t going to cut it on TikTok, and brands are going to have to adapt the way they advertise if using this platform.
Although the company is based in Beijing, TikTok isn’t available in China due to the Chinese censorship restrictions. They have had to create a different version called Douyin.[/xen_text][xen_text text_color=”text-color-4″ text_style=”p-style-bold”]
Downloaded over 1.5 billion times, TikTok’s on a global take over
February 2020
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BRANDS AND ADVERTISING
TikTok’s brand partnerships currently include the likes of Sony, Burberry, Capital Radio’s Summer Ball, Wimbledon, Pride London and the NFL in the US.
Currently as it stands, tracking results from TikTok’s advertising platform is slightly challenging. In addition, while the app looks like a new version of Instagram, it’s content is more inline with YouTube with video content, with the focus being more about being entertained than engaging with friends.[/xen_text][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][xen_popup_img_shortcode image=”12022″][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][xen_text text_style=”p-style-medium”]
TIKTOK IN 2020 AND BEYOND
So where is the future of TikTok taking us? It’s current popularity is astonishing but still doesn’t guarantee that it will ever reach the levels achieved by other social networks such as Instagram and YouTube.
To maintain its popularity, it will have to keep innovating and finding new ways to engage with their users. In addition they will need to make the platform more marketing friendly for brands that want to advertise and see results on their investments within the app.
Another contender in the short video social world is Byte, officially launched January 2020. The app allows you to upload just 6 second long videos, rather than TikTok’s longer video allowance of 14 seconds. Content creators can earn through ads (unlike TikTok), so could this shorter content app take over TikTok in the not too distant future?
Let’s see where 2020 takes them both![/xen_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
