In the fast-paced world that is the internet, keeping up with all the latest trends can be a challenge. Even those of us who fancy ourselves as trend-spotters, your author included, will recognize that there are plenty of blind spots to be uncovered on the world wide web.

Recently, Tik Tok has been in the news quite a bit. Yet, with an audience consisting of primarily Gen Zs and Millennials, it’s still an unknown to many. Here, we’ll explain the premise of TikTok, what it’s being used for, and some of the numbers showing its explosive growth in the last year.

What is Tik Tok, anyways?

It’s ok to admit it. That was my first question, too.

Initially launched in September of 2016, Tik Tok now has over 500 million users worldwide. On the platform, users are able to film videos of themselves lip-syncing, dancing, or acting out mini-comedy sketches with a variety of songs and sounds that can be layered in for added effect. Additionally, users can upload their own sounds or even reply to someone else’s original video with their own creation, making it an environment ripe for collaboration and engagement.

But what makes Tik Tok different, you ask? While there have been a variety of apps with similar functions – including Musical.ly, which was absorbed by Tik Tok late last year – Tik Tok’s algorithm oriented towards binge watching and its sophisticated suite of effects for aspiring creators have made it extremely popular across the globe. Here, we dive into the numbers to understand just how popular Tik Tok has become.

1. Tik Tok has over 500 million active users and passed the threshold of one billion app downloads in January of 2019.
2. It took four and six years for Facebook and Instagram, respectively, to reach the amount of daily users that Tik Tok achieved in under three years.
3. Tik Tok is truly global. It’s currently used in 155 different countries and in 75 different languages.
4. China, in particular, loves its version of the app, Douyin, with over 150 million daily users! Meanwhile, the U.S. has over 26.5 million to its name.
5. Tik Tok was the third most downloaded app in the first quarter of 2019 with 188 million new users, representing 70% growth from Q1 of the previous year.
6. When isolating just the Apple App Store, Tik Tok has been the top application for five consecutive quarters, outpacing the likes of Instagram and other Facebook-owned entities.
7. Forty-one percent of users are between the ages of 16 and 24, illustrating just how popular Tik Tok is with Gen Zs.
8. Fifty-six percent of users are male, while 44% are female. There is no noticeable shift in the gender gap when looking at specific age groups.
9. In the last month, 68% of users have watched someone else’s video content, and 55% have uploaded their own. This speaks to the fact that Tik Tok serves as a place for both creators and those who would rather just watch and be entertained.
10. The average Tik Tok user spends 52 minutes per day on the app – a number that’s right up there with the likes of Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.

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Sources: Gartner Daily Insights Pay Attention to Tik Tok, Oberlo TikTok Statistics that You Need to Know in 2019