While the world is moving backwards, TikTok is taking massive leaps in terms of an increase in visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The video-sharing platform enjoyed 12 million new US visitors in the last month of March and the total number has now reached to 52.2 million, as stated by Comscore.
The figure calculated by Comscore is based on desktop visitors who are 2 or more years old, along with visitors on mobile being 18 or above. Overall, the total number is comprised of visitors on TikTok app, mobile, and desktop website.
In between the time period from January to March, the number of unique US visitors rose up to 48.3%. The app alone in the similar duration saw a 30.1% increase - summing up to 28.8 million.
This immense success of TikTok isn’t sudden. The growth has been there even long before the pandemic started. Back in October 2019, TikTok’s app and website had 27 million unique visitors whereas the mobile app had 18.6 million. However, the monthly gains that occurred in the months of February and March were particularly visible.
Another research firm CivicScience also reported that 27% of US respondents in the age group of 18 to 35 used the app during the month of April 2020. This is a 19% increase when compared to January.
Moreover, the positives just don’t only stop at the number of unique visitors. The time spent by each user on TikTok also went up with US visitors on average spending 858 minutes (14 hours, 18 minutes) in March. If we compare this percentage with January and October’s stats given by Comscore, then there has been a 26.2% and 93.7% hike respectively.
Average time spent per visitor for the app and websites altogether was 476 minutes (nearly 8 hours) during the month of March and these numbers become more surprising when we compare US visitors spending an average time of 319.5 minutes (5 hours) to be exact on Instagram for the similar month.
What Is Making TikTok So Successful?
The answer to this lies in three important factors:
This gain in usage can be pretty helpful for advertisers - who already have their eyes on the platform. Along with a bit of fun and humorous videos, brands can get their message across a wide range of audience available on TikTok.
In fact, as the company is yet to explore this territory, Katie Puris, managing director and global head of business marketing at TikTok has already expressed a similar desire by stating that since brands have their focus set on spreading awareness related to COVID-19, these companies can fulfill their objectives in a more fun way on the platform.
For now, companies are using TikTok only for cause marketing. A more recent example of this is Mondelez International’s Oreo brand’s #CookieWithACause - which involves TikTok users placing a cookie on their forehead and then doing tricks to bring it inside their mouth to eat. About one million challenge videos were uploaded and the donations have also already been made to Save The Children.
Nevertheless, the numbers do show that TikTok is about to become very big, very soon.
Chart courtesy of: Emarketer.
Read next: Edit your video clips to perfection with TikTok's new features: Pinning Stickers and Adjust Clips
The figure calculated by Comscore is based on desktop visitors who are 2 or more years old, along with visitors on mobile being 18 or above. Overall, the total number is comprised of visitors on TikTok app, mobile, and desktop website.
In between the time period from January to March, the number of unique US visitors rose up to 48.3%. The app alone in the similar duration saw a 30.1% increase - summing up to 28.8 million.
This immense success of TikTok isn’t sudden. The growth has been there even long before the pandemic started. Back in October 2019, TikTok’s app and website had 27 million unique visitors whereas the mobile app had 18.6 million. However, the monthly gains that occurred in the months of February and March were particularly visible.
Another research firm CivicScience also reported that 27% of US respondents in the age group of 18 to 35 used the app during the month of April 2020. This is a 19% increase when compared to January.
Moreover, the positives just don’t only stop at the number of unique visitors. The time spent by each user on TikTok also went up with US visitors on average spending 858 minutes (14 hours, 18 minutes) in March. If we compare this percentage with January and October’s stats given by Comscore, then there has been a 26.2% and 93.7% hike respectively.
- Also read: TikTok Has Now Been Downloaded Over 2 Billion Times Globally on the App Store and Google Play
Average time spent per visitor for the app and websites altogether was 476 minutes (nearly 8 hours) during the month of March and these numbers become more surprising when we compare US visitors spending an average time of 319.5 minutes (5 hours) to be exact on Instagram for the similar month.
What Is Making TikTok So Successful?
The answer to this lies in three important factors:
Teenagers and adults are at home
The Kantar "COVID-19 Barometer"—while studying the consumer attitudes and media behaviors during the pandemic—found that in between 15th March to mid-April 2020, TikTok had 33% more respondents among Gen Zers and 27% in millennials.The Sharing Feature
The best part about TikTok is that it allows users to share the video across any social media platform. So, when someone likes a video of some creator the chances of them visiting the platform increases where they get to see more videos without actually making any account on TikTok.Live Streaming
The pandemic gave the social media world a new weapon to explore and enhance their creativity with - live streaming. Hence, keeping up with the trend TikTok also introduced #HappyAtHome: LIVE! - a nightly series on the app. For the start it brought actors, musicians and creators to inspire people during the whole period of March but now as more and more users are getting accustomed to it, the platform will yet again see a constant rise in growth.This gain in usage can be pretty helpful for advertisers - who already have their eyes on the platform. Along with a bit of fun and humorous videos, brands can get their message across a wide range of audience available on TikTok.
In fact, as the company is yet to explore this territory, Katie Puris, managing director and global head of business marketing at TikTok has already expressed a similar desire by stating that since brands have their focus set on spreading awareness related to COVID-19, these companies can fulfill their objectives in a more fun way on the platform.
For now, companies are using TikTok only for cause marketing. A more recent example of this is Mondelez International’s Oreo brand’s #CookieWithACause - which involves TikTok users placing a cookie on their forehead and then doing tricks to bring it inside their mouth to eat. About one million challenge videos were uploaded and the donations have also already been made to Save The Children.
Nevertheless, the numbers do show that TikTok is about to become very big, very soon.
Chart courtesy of: Emarketer.
Read next: Edit your video clips to perfection with TikTok's new features: Pinning Stickers and Adjust Clips
