App Annie’s 2022 Mobile Forecast report has shared that TikTok will pass 1.5 billion active users by next year. This is a key indicator of its massive cultural influence spreading like wildfire worldwide.
In comparison, Meta’s Instagram has been stuck at one billion active users since it reached the milestone in 2018. It has been mum about recent figures so far.
App Annie’s estimates have met the targets. In November 2020, it predicted that TikTok would reach a billion active users in 2021. And it passed the figure in September this year.
TikTok is growing exponentially at an unprecedented rate. It now has a cultural influence faster than any other platform in the past.
Facebook, now Meta, and Instagram crawled their way to reach their first billion users. They had to set new habitual, social behaviors. And TikTok leveraged on these behaviors.
The rapid rise of TikTok comes amid its ban in India. The country was TikTok’s biggest market at one point, with 200 million monthly actives. If it could continue, its Indian user base would now be 500 million more or less. And TikTok would have had a total of 1.5 billion active users now.
At one time, Snapchat was set to reach the same massive growth as TikTok. But Instagram copied Stories to reduce its rise. This is the same strategy that Instagram-parent Meta has followed with TikTok. Its Reels feature on Facebook and Instagram is an obvious attempt to steal audience share from a rising rival.
YouTube added Shorts. Snapchat added Spotlight. And other social apps have tried copying one or more TikTok features. Yet, with all the competition pitted against it, TikTok has endured.
TikTok has gained more audience because of its competitions’ efforts.
The key is in algorithm matching. TikTok has a better algorithm than any platform at delivering a never-ending stream of content that always piques the interests of its users.
Download App Annie’s complete 2022 App Predictions report here.
