What will happen to TikTok?

On March 1st, TikTok announced that within a few weeks “every account belonging to a user below age 18 will automatically be set to a 60-minute daily screen time limit”.

Is this coincidentally happening a few days ahead of the National Day of Unplugging (1), or even echoing the viral trend “Quit TikTok March 3rd”? Is TikTok ridding a growing international worry about time spent on screens, or do they take responsibility for the world they partly created?

TikTok has grown dramatically

Originally started as Musical.ly targeting a younger audience, TikTok has now more than

70 % daily reach among teenagers in Norway. Social media habits often evolve from younger target groups, and this is true for TikTok.

Ipsos’ annual children and teens survey (ages 8 to 19-years-old) demonstrates the explosive growth of TikTok within the last two years. The numbers are sky high if we look closer at the 16-19 age group, whose daily usage of TikTok is at the level of 78 %.

Meanwhile TikTok has become one of the most popular and loved social media channels in Norway, according to Ipsos’ social media survey results among a nationally representative population of adults above 18 years old.

In Q4 2022, TikTok became the 5th largest social media platform in the country by the number of profiles and reached 1.3 million Norwegian users among the population above 18-years-old. Over the past two years, the number of TikTok profiles has doubled to reach 30 % in Q4 2022.

However, the activity level on a social media platform tells us more about social media habits, as people can have a profile but never use it. We define active users as those who use TikTok at least once a day or more frequently.

In Q4 2022, daily usage reached 21 % among the population 18+. The increase compared to the same period in 2021 is +7 %-points, making TikTok the 5th largest social media platform in terms of both number of profiles and daily usage. The most interesting element is the dramatic growth among young adults between the ages of 18 to 29. 6 in 10 use TikTok up to several times daily and we have no belief it will diminish in any way.

At the same time, our survey also shows that 1 in 4 children between the ages of 8 to 11 years old claim that they spend time on TikTok daily. Despite that this is below the age limit requirement that TikTok has set of users having to be at least 13 years old.

What is perhaps disturbing is that TikTok has taken first place in 2022 as the social media channel children and young people state they experienced having seen something they don't think should be shown. 66% in the age group 8 to 19 confirm this. The top three social media channels are TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. Most girls say that they have experienced seeing content that they don't think should be allowed to be shown on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.

Why has TikTok gained such rapid popularity?

TikTok’s success can be attributed to a combination of factors where the hunger for short-time format, video entertainment consumption and an efficient algorithm are big components. However, in our analysis at Ipsos, we also attribute the success of TikTok to the strong emotional connection the platform has managed to create with its users. Forming a relationship between a user/buyer and a brand by building strong positive emotions is the key to success and growth for many brands, including TikTok.

Among young daily users, TikTok is Norway's most loved social media platform, with a significant gap to the next player, Snapchat. 41% of daily TikTok users claim that they love this social media platform.

According to Ipsos' new State of Social Media survey in Northern Europe, this trend is even stronger in the other Scandinavian countries, where TikTok enjoys the first place among all four countries, with Finland leading the way.

Does TikTok have the power to change the industry?

So, what will happen to this young target group that TikTok is trying to influence? At Ipsos, we have some thoughts regarding possible developments in the future.

Food for thoughts:

• Most likely, young users will immediately attempt to find ways to continue using TikTok beyond the 60-minute limitation. However, the question is, how long will this enthusiasm for finding loopholes last?
• Will content creators experience a reduction in views or performance and move to other platforms to reach that young target group?
• Will users move to other platforms either because they have reached their time limitation or because they follow the content creators?
• Will TikTok become more attractive due to its exclusivity?
• Will the TikTok audience be older? And so, will the content change?
• Will other social media platforms take advantage of this opportunity to grab the younger audience? And if so, how?
• Or maybe other platforms will copy TikTok and limit time for a specific audience? If so, does that mean TikTok is starting a new “era”?
• And finally, is all this just a hype created by TikTok, and will they reverse this decision anytime soon?

Only time will show and at Ipsos, we are following this development very closely. Stay tuned!

? Anastasiia Chernykh and Nathalie Eyde Warembourg , Ipsos in Norway .

Contact: [email protected]

?#socialmedia #TikTok #SoMe #digitalmediamarketing

(1): On the first Friday in March, National Day of Unplugging, kicks off a 24-hour period from sundown to sundown, to unplug, unwind, relax and do things other than using today's technology, electronics, and social media.

Sources:

• Ipsos SoMe-tracker, 6.000 interviews all year round of a national representation of the population in Norway above 18 years old. Since 2013.
• Ipsos Children & Teens survey. Yearly deep dive study of a national representation of the population in Norway between the age group 8 to 19 years old. Since 2000.
• The State of social media in Norden Europe. Yearly deep dive study of a national representation of the population in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden above 18 years old. Since 2022.