TikTok was the most downloaded app globally in 2020
TikTok was downloaded almost 115 million times in March 2020 alone.
This made it the most the app has ever achieved to date in one month.
The growth in downloads was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic as many people spent time indoors with their smartphones.
TikTok is called Douyin in China
The original app of TikTok was launched in 2016 and created by Bytedance in China.
They called the app “Douyin” and then launched it to the western market in 2017 as TikTok.
Douyin is exactly the same app as TikTok however, in China, it attracts a slightly older demographic, with users ranging from children to middle-aged adults.
Around 41% of TikTok users are between the ages of 16-24
TikTok was designed with a younger demographic in mind.
The app allows users to express themselves through lip-syncing, acting, dancing, and singing.
In 2019 a survey showed that 41% of users were between 16-24 years old, and it is no surprise given the point of the app.
It attracts a younger audience because of the nature of content creation; it is a form of self-expression.
TikTok was originally called Musical.ly
Musical.ly was launched in 2014; with users uploading short videos of themselves lip-syncing and being comedic.
However, this changed to TikTok when the two merged in 2017.
On November 9, 2017, Chinese company Bytedance, TikTok’s founder purchased Musical.ly for $1 billion USD.
TikTok hoped to take over the market and attract younger users.
The merge happened on August 2, 2018, bringing TikTok users and Musical.ly accounts together to form one community.
TikTok is a globally available app, except for in China where it has remained a separate version called Douyin.
In 2019 TikTok introduced advertisements encouraging users to take breaks from the app
In 2019 as part of TikTok’s “You’re in Control” content series, campaigners were designed to help users.
In an attempt to prompt users, TikTok created advertisements to remind users to take a break from the app.
The campaign worked alongside TikTok celebrities to encourage users to drink water or get food, as sometimes you can get so lost on the app you forget to take care of yourself.
TikTok is banned in India
As of 2020, TikTok had been downloaded a total of over 611 million times in India, which was around 30% of total global downloads.
That’s more than the total number of downloads in the US, with 200 million downloads as of 2021.
However, on June 29, 2020, The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology blocked usage of the app in India.
TikTok has a time management feature
Before the “You’re in Control” campaign was uploaded to TikTok, there was an earlier attempt in reducing screen time.
This campaign was introduced in April 2019 and encouraged users to take breaks from continuously looking at the screen.
The screen time management feature encouraged “digital wellbeing” by allowing users to put time limits on their daily usage.
This was a response to research into the effects of the app on the mental wellbeing and brain development of the users.
Some studies have shown that watching short videos on a loop can reduce attention span, especially on a developing brain.
The average total time spent on TikTok per day is 52 minutes
Statistics from Businessofapps revealed that in 2019 the average total time spent by a user on TikTok was 52 minutes per day.
Users will on average open the app eight times per day and spend around 6-7 minutes on the app.
That is almost one hour of time spent either uploading and creating video content or scrolling through the abundance of content already on the app.
Compared with other social media apps, this is a normal average, as Instagram users spend around 53 minutes per day on the app.
90% of TikTok users use the app multiple times daily
Did you know that three-quarters of all apps downloaded are only accessed once, then never used again?
This puts TikTok in the remaining quarter, with 90 percent of its users using the app on a daily basis.
As of 2021, TikTok is worth $140 billion USD
TikTok more than doubled its annual revenue in 2019. By the end of 2018, it was worth $7.4 billion and reached $17 billion by the end of 2019.
TikTok was worth $75 billion USD in early 2020, which made it the world’s most valuable privately-owned company.
However, as of 2021, it reached an incredible worth of $140 billion USD.
As well as being a profitable app, the average TikTok star can earn anything between $50,000 to $150,000 per year.