Vibe Check: TikTok Is Still Dominating

Big news #1: TikTok may have had a rough year politically in 2020, but that did little to impact their business.

Most downloaded apps globally in 2020 according to App Annie:
1) TikTok
2) Facebook
3) WhatsApp
4) Zoom
5) Instagram
6) Facebook Messenger
7) Google Meet
8) Snapchat
9) Telegram
10) Netflix

Flashback #1: TikTok = $50B?

Flashback #2: TikTok Boom! How the Exploding Social Media App Is Going Hollywood

Share of TikTok users by age:
1) 18-24 – 42%
2) 25-34 – 22%
3) 13-17 – 17%
4) 34-44 – 12%
5) 45+ – 7%

Wow: The average TikTok user spends 89 minutes/day with the app and opens it 19 times!

TikTok users in the U.S. according to eMarketer:
1) 2018 – 18.8M
2) 2019 – 35.6M (↑ 89%)
3) 2020 – 66.5M (↑ 87%)
4) 2021P – 78.7M (↑ 18%)
5) 2022P – 84.9M (↑ 8%)
6) 2023P – 89.7M (↑ 6%)
7) 2024P – 93.8M (↑ 5%)
8) 2025P – 97.0M (↑ 4%)

Big news #2: TikTok is expanding the maximum length for videos from 1 to 3 minutes.

Why this matters: It is easy to focus on the skirmishes between individual players, but the war is for attention. Netflix lists both Fortnite and TikTok as competitors even though they appear quite different.

Quote from Kirby Grines – CEO @ 43Twenty:“Although it’s still commonplace for consumers and industry execs alike to consider cable and streaming video services as ‘TV,’ and platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram as ‘social media,’ they’re one and the same. These binary labels are increasingly becoming antiquated every day.”

Quote from Adam Mosseri – CEO @ Instagram:“We’re no longer a photo-sharing app or a square photo-sharing app. There’s some really serious competition right now. TikTok is huge, YouTube is even bigger, and there’s lots of other upstarts as well. People are looking to Instagram to be entertained. There’s stiff competition, there’s more to do, and we have to embrace that.”

More: Inside the Race for Brands’ TikTok Ad Dollars

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