
TikTok user growth shows it’s now chasing Instagram
TikTok eclipsed Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat in US users within just a few years, and now it’s chasing Instagram, according to estimates by US-based market research firm Insider Intelligence. “After years of exceptional growth, TikTok will boast more than 100 million US monthly users in 2023—unless lawmakers stand in its way”, the company says. Prior to a recent Senate’s hearing of its CEO, TikTok said it has 150 million monthly active users in the US.
Insider Intelligence forecasts that this year, 45.3% of US social network users will use TikTok at least once a month. For comparison, 78.7% will be on Facebook as often.
“TikTok has room to grow, especially among older users. But it first has to convince US lawmakers that it’s safe to keep around.”
The EU Commission, Western governments and companies are instructing staff to delete the TikTok app from their business phones. The US government wants TikTok to sell its US operations or risk being banned from the US market.
The background is concern expressed by security people that the Chinese-owned TikTok could collect sensitive data that could be passed on the Chinese authorities. FBI director Christopher Wray recently said that TikTok’s privacy and data collection policies could allow for the capture of sensitive personally identifiable information and that data could be accessed by the Chinese government.
“In Asia-Pacific, TikTok will be the fastest-growing social platform this year. Its user increase in 2023 will be nearly double that of its much bigger US rival Instagram (13.6% versus 7.3%)” Insider Intelligence says.
“Though it’s banned in India, TikTok will have much of its growth in Asia-Pacific driven by Southeast Asia. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam together will account for about half of TikTok users in Asia-Pacific, excluding China.”
“And all of those countries except Singapore will see their TikTok user base rise more than 10% this year.”
The market research firm says TikTok’s Asia-Pacific growth will be watched by marketers because that region will account for 67% of the increase in social users globally this year.
“Facebook has a larger user following in Asia-Pacific relative to other social networks, but it will face user declines in several countries as the region’s new social media participants are joining Instagram and Snapchat.”
“Twitter will see declines in user growth in all countries in Asia-Pacific except Japan as new users steer clear of the platform following its purchase by Elon Musk.”
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