A Deep Dive into TikTok
Since it was released back in late 2017 the social media platform TikTok has seen a meteoric rise, one that many successful platforms before it have seen. Even though it was around for just over two years during the last decade, it was the 7th most downloaded app in the world on both android and iOS devices, and has seen itself blow up, especially in the teenage demographic (oberlo.com). According to a report found on oberlo.com, TikTok is now the 9th most used social media site, with over 500 million users, which places them ahead of both Twitter and Snapchat, two of the most commonly known and downloaded apps for all smartphone users.
The now famous TikTok logo, a music note.
To put it in perspective as well, is the fact that amid Covid-19, TikTok is still growing at a large rate. Looking at the most downloaded apps, TikTok is number four on the chart, the only apps ahead of it right now are apps such as Zoom and Google Classroom, which are being used to host classes online for college and high school students. This is the first time in five quarters, that the app has been supplanted from the top of the charts on the app store as well, showing that TikTok may not have even hit full maturity yet.
The app, while it obviously geared more toward the teenage demographic, has seen a spread to adults as well. To look at the teenage demographic and how it controls the numbers in teens is the fact that in 13-16 year olds, TikTok is used more than both Facebook and Twitter are according to emarketer.com. In total, 42% of TikTok users are in between the ages of 16-24, but as I mentioned, that is slowly changing as more adults are beginning to download and use the app. From personal experience I can say this is true as my mother, who until a few months ago would have thought the app was some sort of time telling device, sends me links to TikToks on the daily. But the numbers also back this up as in the past 18 months, TikTok has seen a boom in this age demographic as the number of users boomed to over 5.5 times the original number (oberlo.com).
Another number to know about TikTok is that the average user spends nearly an hour on the app a day (oberlo.com)! To put that in perspective, a college student is on the app longer than they will be in a standard class on a Wednesday afternoon. Not to mention 9 in every 10 users are on the app multiple times a day.
All of the above stats gives businesses the potential to connect with audiences of all ages to different world wide brands, making it a new place to market products and services. To me it is the perfect place to connect people to businesses and market because on the For You Page it shows you things that you are interested in. I know on my FYP that I am only getting advertisements for things that I may be interested in. For instance right now the big ad for me is for mothers day gifts, timely and directed at the proper audience. One con of doing this is that a person can scroll right past the ad without watching it or noticing it.
The important thing to know about TikTok if you are going to take anything away from it is the fact that it hasn’t come close to reaching full maturity yet as it is still growing on a daily basis with 1 Billion original videos and growing put on the app a day. Another important thing to know is that the app seems to have abandoned its’ original teenage mold to be far more inclusive to nearly every single demographic, meaning it will only grow more.