TikTok, a social video app launched in 2016 used for sharing and creating video content, continues to grow in popularity. As of 2022, approximately 41 percent of users in the U.S. engaged with the popular social video app. Around seven in 10 respondents aged between 18 and 19 years were using TikTok, while usage among respondents aged between 20 and 29 years was approximately 56 percent.

TikTok global usage In 2021, TikTok had 1 billion active monthly users worldwide, a growth of 45 percent on the previous year. As of April 2021, the majority of global TikTok users spent less than one hour per week on the platform. Eleven percent of users spent five to ten hours a week on the app, and six percent were using it for ten hours or more per week.

Users' opinion: safety concerns and positive influenceOnline TikTok challenges and hoaxes have been a topic of discussion in recent years, with parents raising concerns about safety regarding content posted on the platform. As for U.S. adults’ opinions of TikTok, favorable attitudes towards the platform decrease with age. Overall, as of November 2021, 33 percent of users aged 18 to 34 years had a favorable opinion of the app, but just one in 10 users aged between 45 and 64 years felt the same. Around 20 percent of all adults had a very unfavorable view of TikTok. Despite the criticism, the platform hosts a large number of positive influencers, focusing on themes such as mental health awareness and body positivity. In 2021, one of the most followed TikTok educators and activists was Nicole Lilly Christou, with her profile @nikkililly reporting approximately 7.7 million followers in the United Kingdom alone.

TikTok has a significantly larger female user base globally.

These TikTok user statistics tell the whole story of the new social media giant and give you some insights into the app's future.

In March 2024, approximately ** percent of online users aged between 15 and 24 years in the United Kingdom engaged with social video app TikTok. Users aged between 25 and 34 years were the second largest age demographic on the platform, while only one quarter of users aged 75 and older reported engaging with TikTok. Overall, **** of the UK digital population engaged with the popular Chinese-developed app.

Social video platform TikTok made significant gains in popularity in the Netherlands between 2020 and 2023. In 2023, there were approximately four million TikTok users in the Netherlands, up from three million in the previous year. Users aged 20 to 24 years accounted for the biggest share of TikTok’s audience in the country, recording approximately 850,000 users in 2023.

Mobile social As of the end of 2022, mobile social media were the most engaging app category for users in the Netherlands. On average, Dutch users was reported spending 65 minutes per day on social apps, compared to 26 minutes spent interacting with casual gaming apps, and 14 daily minutes spent on shopping apps on a daily basis. Mobile-first communication and chat apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Snapchat ranked among the most popular social platforms among Dutch users in the third quarter of 2022. Social video app TikTok has become increasingly more popular, reaching four million users in 2023.

Most popular Dutch content creators With 14 million followers and several years of activity within the global beauty content community, Nikkie Tutorials was the second most popular Dutch content creator on YouTube in February 2023. With the rise of TikTok and short-video features like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, video has become one of the most engaging formats for content creators to connect with their audiences in the Netherlands as in the rest of the digital market. As of September 2022, online Dutch influencer Sherell Martini reportedly had 4.84 million TikTok followers, while online personality and hair influencer Quinity Mirjam recorded over three million followers.

Users spend an average of 19.6 hours per month on TikTok alone. This works out to be approximately 39 minutes per day.

TikTok has risen through the ranks to become the 5th most popular social media network worldwide.

The most TikTok users in Germany were found among Gen Z as of 2024, with around ** percent stating that they used the platform. Roughly ** percent of millennials said that they had a TikTok account. The TikTok phenomenon TikTok is a video-sharing app that became extremely popular during the first half of 2020. Millions of people signed up to the social media platform and started making short videos of themselves doing various activities. One of the most common types of videos on the app is dancing videos in which people choreograph short dances to parts of popular songs and then the dance is replicated by thousands of users. There were over **** billion users on TikTok in 2024, and in 2025 this figure is predicted to grow to roughly **** billion. With an audience so large, there are many opportunities for success on the app. Popular names who found fame on the app include Charli D’Amelio, Addison Rae, and Khabane Lame to name a few. There are also several famous German TikTok accounts such as Youneszarou, Noelgoescrazy, and Condsty who all have over ** million followers. Social media networks How does TikTok compare to other social media apps? It was ranked as the fifth most popular worldwide, top of the list were Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. This is quite impressive, when considering that the app was banned in India, one of its largest user bases, in 2020. When it comes to the amount of time that Germans spend on social media, however, they rake quite low in comparison to other countries. Brazil topped the list with the average respondents spending almost * hours on social media each day, whilst in Germany, this figure was just * hour and ** minutes. Currently, in Germany there are almost ***** million people who use social media, according to preliminary figures. However, by 2026, this figure is expected to grow to around ** million. It seems clear that social media is here to stay.

As of June 2023, Gen Z, or those between the ages of 19 and 25 years old, made up the majority of the TikTok user base in Singapore, with ***** percent. This was followed by Millennials between the ages of 26 and 32 years, comprising around ***** percent of TikTok users. TikTok usage in Singapore Introduced in 2018 in Singapore, TikTok has rapidly grown to become one of the country's most widely used social media platforms. As of June 2023, it was the most downloaded app in the city-state, recording ****** thousand downloads. This rise was also reflected in user engagement, as Singaporean users spent a monthly average of ***** hours on TikTok in 2022. It enabled TikTok to reach a monthly revenue of **** million U.S. dollars in December 2022. The platform's rapid development has made it a major hub for the younger generation and is shaping digital trends in the country. The rise of TikTok Shop TikTok is no longer just a video-sharing platform; it has expanded its functionality to become a social commerce hub. TikTok Shop was launched in Singapore in August 2022. The marketplace is integrated into the TikTok platform, enabling consumers and creators to connect and engage directly with brands and sellers. In the city-state, where e-commerce holds a major position, this new feature is in line with the trend towards social commerce. Indeed, in February 2023, ** percent of people surveyed in the country replied that they regularly made purchases on social media. Among them, ** percent used TikTok for their purchases.

As of April 2025, almost 32 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 25 and 34 years, and 29.5 percent of users were aged between 25 and 34 years. Overall, 16.3 percent of users belonged to the 35 to 44 year age group. Instagram users With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide. The social photo sharing app is especially popular in India and in the United States, which have respectively 413.85 million and 171.7 million Instagram users each. Instagram features One of the most popular features of Instagram is Stories. Users can post photos and videos to their Stories stream and the content is live for others to view for 24 hours before it disappears. In January 2019, the company reported that there were 500 million daily active Instagram Stories users. Instagram Stories directly competes with Snapchat, another photo sharing app that initially became famous due to it’s “vanishing photos” feature. As of the first quarter of 2025, Snapchat had 460 million daily active users.

During the first quarter of 2024, TikTok content recorded an average of 18,173 views, making the platform rank as the most engaging for social and short-form video content. Instagram was the second most popular platform, with its Reels generating 16,152 average views. Facebook short form videos, also called Reels, ranked third. In comparison, YouTube Shorts ranked the lowest based on average video views - approximately 650 as of the examined time. TikTok as a profession: from followers to career goals In 2024, TikTok had an average reach of around 13,000 users on the platform, though accounts’ reach exhibited an upward trend as the follower count increased. Tiny TikTok accounts with up to 500 followers had a reach of 10,000 users, while huge accounts with over 50,000 followers recorded a reach of 71,000 users during the same examined year. As of July 2024, Khabane Lame, who is known for his silent comedy about life hacks, held the crown of the most followed TikToker with around 163 million followers. American social media star Charli D’Amelio and MrBeast followed with over 155 and 97 million followers, respectively. As of September 2023, Charli D’Amelio was the highest earning TikTok creator, with estimated annual earnings of 23 million U.S. dollars. Khabane Lame’s followed with estimated annual earnings of 16.5 million U.S. dollars. But do TikTok users consider content creation as a job? As of March 2024, six percent of the TikTok users in the United States reported considering content creation as a full-time job, while 11 percent reported planning to adopt content creation as a profession. If TikTok had to face a ban in the country, around 30 percent of U.S. TikTok influencers would consider YouTube, and Facebook as their potential alternatives for content creation as of April 2024. Instagram followed, as 15 percent of respondents reported they would adopt the platform in the case of the TikTok ban. Who uses TikTok? As of July 2024, over 54 percent of the global TikTok audience were men, while women comprised around 45 percent of the audience share. Men between the ages of 25 and 34 held the largest share of 19 percent of total TikTok users during the same examined period. Indonesia was the country with the highest number of TikTok users, as around 158 million users based in the region reported accessing the platform as of July 2024. The United States, and Brazil followed with over 120 and 105 million TikTok users, respectively. In terms of TikTok penetration rate, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia dominated other regions, as virtually everyone based in these countries registered using the famous short-video platform during the same period.

Snapchat now boasts over 319 million daily active users. That means it’s one of the most engaging platforms. Snapchat currently has a total user base of 800 million.

As of June 2025, **** percent of Instagram users in the United States were aged between 25 and 34 years, making up the platform’s largest audience in the country. Overall, the group with the second-highest usage was those aged 18 to 24 years, with **** percent of users, followed by **** percent that were aged 35 to 44 years. The age group that used Instagram the least was those older than 65 years, making up *** percent of users, respectively. Popular social media platforms in the United States Instagram was the fourth most visited social media platform in the United States as of March 2025 across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices combined, accounting for *** percent of all social media visits in the country. Despite Instagram’s popularity, Facebook remained the leading social media platform by far in the U.S., accounting for more than ** percent of all social media visits. Pinterest and X (formerly Twitter) ranked second and third in terms of visits, with ***** percent and ***** percent of visits, respectively. Instagram’s global audience Instagram’s global popularity continues to surge, with no signs of slowing down. As of January 2025, the country with the largest Instagram audience was India with ****** million users, while the United States had the second-highest market with ***** million users, followed by Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey, respectively. As of February 2025, Instagram was the third most popular social network globally, reaching *** billion monthly active users.

As of March 2024, TikTok commanded almost ** hours of engagement per month from UK users aged between 15 and 24 years. In comparison, the average time spent across all age demographics in the UK was of approximately ** hours per month. Users aged between 25 and 34 years spent approximately ** hours monthly engaging with the popular social video app TikTok.

As of February 2025, 37.5 percent of X’s (formerly Twitter) global audience was aged between 25 and 34 years. The second-largest age group demographic on the platform was represented by users aged between 18 and 24 years, with a share of 32.1 percent. Users aged less than 18 years accounted for two percent of users, while those aged 50 or older accounted for roughly 7.3 percent. X is a male-dominated platform As of January 2024, more than 60 percent of X users were male. Although all mainstream social media platforms tend to have a slightly more male-skewing audience, X stands out above Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook when it comes to user gender demographics. Overall, Pinterest is the only mainstream platform to have a higher share of female users. X Blue for you It is not uncommon for social media users to now have the chance to become subscribers of their chosen online networks for a monthly fee. X Blue is a subscription service from X that gives users special benefits and features. A blue verification mark, edit post functionality, fewer ads, priority ranking in chats, and longer video upload times are some of the perks offered.

During the fourth quarter 2024, approximately 20.6 million TikTok accounts were removed from the platform due to suspicion of being operated by users under the age of 13. During the last measured period, around 185 million fake accounts were removed from fake accounts removed from TikTok.

As of April 2025, around 17.6 percent of global active Instagram users were men between the ages of 25 and 34 years. More than half of the global Instagram population worldwide was aged 34 years or younger. Teens and social media As one of the biggest social networks worldwide, Instagram is especially popular with teenagers. As of fall 2023, the photo-sharing app ranked third in terms of preferred social network among teenagers in the United States, following TikTok and Snapchat. Instagram was one of the most influential advertising channels among female Gen Z users when making purchasing decisions. Teens reported feeling more confident, popular, and better about themselves when using social media, and less lonely, depressed and anxious. However, social media can also have negative effects on teens, which can be much more pronounced on those with low emotional well-being. It was found that 35 percent of teenagers with low social-emotional well-being reported to have experienced cyber bullying when using social media, while in comparison only five percent of teenagers with high social-emotional well-being stated the same. As such, social media can have a big impact on already fragile states of mind.

As of August 2021, TikTok users in Russia aged between 12 and 24 years spent approximately ** minutes on average per day on this social media app. Average daily usage of TikTok decreased gradually with age, and was reported the lowest for over ** year old users.

With barely 10 seconds and 61 million likes, Bella Poach's lip syncing "M to the B" by Millie B was the most engaging video on TikTok as of March 2023. Bella Poarch, who as of the beginning of 2023 was the third-most followed creator on the popular social video platform, rose to popularity as a singer and content creators since opening a TikTok account in January 2020. Second ranked "dancing in front of the bathroom mirror," by user @jamie32bsh generated almost 52 million likes between its upload time - January 2022 and March 2023.

As of January 2024, Instagram was slightly more popular with men than women, with men accounting for 50.6 percent of the platform’s global users. Additionally, the social media app was most popular amongst younger audiences, with almost 32 percent of users aged between 18 and 24 years.

              Instagram’s Global Audience

              As of January 2024, Instagram was the fourth most popular social media platform globally, reaching two billion monthly active users (MAU). This number is projected to keep growing with no signs of slowing down, which is not a surprise as the global online social penetration rate across all regions is constantly increasing.
              As of January 2024, the country with the largest Instagram audience was India with 362.9 million users, followed by the United States with 169.7 million users.

              Who is winning over the generations?

              Even though Instagram’s audience is almost twice the size of TikTok’s on a global scale, TikTok has shown itself to be a fierce competitor, particularly amongst younger audiences. TikTok was the most downloaded mobile app globally in 2022, generating 672 million downloads. As of 2022, Generation Z in the United States spent more time on TikTok than on Instagram monthly.