The app has amassed 1bn users faster than its predecessors
not just for lip-syncing teenagers. The video-sharing app, best known for viral dances and trends, recently hit 1bn monthly active users. And it did so at a record pace. It took Facebook roughly nine years to hit the billion-user mark, around eight for Instagram and seven for each of YouTube and Whatsapp. TikTok, launched in 2016, managed to reach the milestone in just five years.
Whereas platforms like Facebook enjoyed a relatively laissez-faire regulatory climate when they launched, TikTok has faced more government scrutiny. In June 2020 India’s government banned it, along with dozens of other Chinese apps, citing national security concerns. A month later then President Donald Trump threatened to do the same. The platform has been banned in several countries—including Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan—for “inappropriate” content.
Rivals are catching on. Instagram and YouTube have launched their own short-video features, dubbed “Reels” and “Shorts”, respectively. Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s boss, recently said that the app would be further “leaning in” to video, adding that the platform is “no longer a photo-sharing app”. On October 5th the firm launched “Instagram Video”, which combines two formerly separate video features. TikTok’s rapid rise demonstrates a clear preference among social-media users for video content.