6 Reasons TikTok Should Not Be Ignored

It was a regular day on the Internet until I spiraled deep into the world of all things TikTok. Adoption, growth, commerce potential - it's completely and utterly fascinating (or at least it is for me, a social media nerd). I'm not going to go deep into advertising on TikTok or Brand Safety, because there are legitimate concerns, but rather focus on the consumer usage and behavior that is making this phenomenon break the Internet, and the reasons it can become much much bigger than it is right now.

Here are six reasons TikTok should not be ignored (or why to give a damn about TikTok)...

1. TikTok is THE BIGGEST social network outside the Facebook ecosystem

Not including messaging apps like WeChat in the mix, TikTok is the largest social network after Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. This is huge for a player relatively new to the space, TikTok launched in 2017 and merged with Musical.ly in 2018. To put this in perspective, TikTok has 52%+ more users than Twitter, Reddit and Pinterest and 61% more users than Snapchat, all platforms that have been around for years longer. By making smart acquisitions throughout the years in WhatsApp and Instagram, Facebook has been able to remain relatively unthreatened in the space. However, with TikTok's share of Generation Z and rapid growth, it is the first competitor that may actually be able to eventually outpace the Facebook ecosystem.

2. TikTok could hit 1 billion users in 2020

Ok there's a lot going on in this chart but bear with me. In order to understand just how quickly TikTok is growing, it is important to evaluate it among other rapid growth channels like Instagram and Snapchat. Currently, TikTok has 500 million reported global monthly users, but that number was reported in June 2018, a year and a half ago. Still, they hit that number in 2 years. It took Instagram 6 years to hit 500 million and Snapchat has yet to come close. ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, hit 1 billion monthly active users across its apps in June 2019 and TikTok has reportedly been downloaded 1.5 billion times. This means that TikTok could very easily exceed 1 billion users in 2020, making it as big as (or potentially bigger than) Instagram.

3. TikTok is a Global Powerhouse

While TikTok is still relatively small in the U.S. with about 27MM unique monthly users in October 2019 according to Comscore, it has huge global power. TikTok is currently in 150 countries, including China. WhatsApp is in 180 countries, but not in China. WeChat on the other hand is in China and has 1.151 billion users alone. This means an app that is prevalent both in China an elsewhere in the globe (cough cough TikTok) has insane global growth potential.

4. TikTok has the potential to win social commerce

Social commerce is a huge buzzword with still not a ton of user adoption. But, China is a powerful market when it comes to mobile commerce and user adoption of social commerce. According to Business of Apps, 92% of people in China's biggest cities reported using WeChat Pay or Alipay as their primary method of payment in 2017, and 900 million people use WeChat Pay on a monthly basis. Commerce is incredibly depending on the user-experience, and providing seamless purchase methods like mobile payment or native payment in apps and networks people already using will help retailers continue to grow, or even just to maintain relevance. China is a world leader in mobile commerce, with $16 trillion worth of mobile transactions in 2017.

Beyond mobile payment, China is also innovating in social commerce. Xiaohongshu is a social commerce app described as a combination between Instagram and Amazon, allowing customers to shop visually based on photos, advice and reviews. According to CNBC, the app has over 200 million registered users and claims to be growing by 300% each year. The company is currently valued at $3 billion. This is relevant because TikTok is a Chinese company owned app, with 250 million daily active users coming from China. Douyin, the name for TikTok in China, already added a shopping cart for publishers with over 1 million followers, giving the user the ability to buy goods ranging from cosmetics and food to stationery supplies on Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao and Tmall platforms. TikTok users are already exhibiting the shopping behavior. According to SensorTower, user spending on in-app purchases has increased 275% year-over-year to $3.5 million in 2018. TikTok has the right market, the right user-base, and the right tools to ultimately become a huge player in the social commerce space.

5. TikTok is the third largest social platform by time spent

Looking at Comscore data for average monthly minutes per visitor in the U.S., TikTok is the third largest social platform for time spent, behind only Facebook and Messenger. In October 2019, U.S. users spent an average of 306 minutes per month, or over 5 hours, on TikTok. According to Fast Company, globally, users are now spending 45 minutes per day on TikTok, ranking it above Facebook. We know that TikTok still has room for growth in the U.S. market, but looking at the global trend, combined with the time spent in the U.S., it is clear that it will only continue to grow share in the U.S.

6. TikTok tops the charts for app downloads

Ok it's a bit of a "duh" to put at the end of an article, but still very compelling. TikTok was the third biggest worldwide downloaded app in Q1 2019 according to SensorTower. It was the number one app that quarter in the Apple App store, and number three in Google Play (which has significantly more international scale than Apple). The charts prove more of the same story - this app is hugely prevalent and continues to grow. While it is still a largely Generation Z and Millennial user-base, the fact that TikTok continues to make the top slots for app downloads proves it is growing and expanding far beyond that.

The Bottom Line: Don't ignore TikTok. It has the growth rate, the global potential and commerce potential to become a social powerhouse in 2020.

Disclosure: Like I said at the beginning, this isn't an advertising POV on TikTok or Brand Safety, because there are legitimate concerns, but rather a focus on the consumer usage and behavior, and the reasons TikTok can become much much bigger than it is right now.

Sources: eMarketer, Statista, Comscore, Instagram, businessofapps.com, CNBC, SensorTower, Fast Company