A new social media giant is emerging as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube were all outpaced in app downloads last month.
Topping the US app download charts is video sharing app TikTok, according to Apptopia.
Those who haven’t heard of TikTok may be familiar with its former name – Musical.ly.
Musical.ly was acquired by Chinese company Bytedance last year, and was merged with the company’s own TikTok app three months ago.
Since then its growth has surged, gaining over 30 million users in the past three months.
During that time, Monthly active users jumped from 100 million to over 130 million.
In the past three months since merging with Musical.ly, US downloads of TikTok grew by 25% and worldwide downloads grew by 20%.
Why is TikTok Growing So Fast?
In addition to the interest generated by merging with Musical.ly, part of TikTok’s rapid growth can be attributed to advertising.
Parent company Bytedance has significantly increased advertising spend in the past three months and widened its use of different advertising networks. Again this is according to data from Apptopia.
Data also shows that users who have downloaded TikTok are engaging with it more frequently. Daily sessions over the past three months are up 24%.
For what it’s worth, 80% of user sessions are from Android devices.
Looking at the past six months, daily active users of TikTok have increased by an average of 67%.
However, while that is a sizable increase, TikTok is still well below competitors when it comes to daily engagement rates.
Only 28.56% of people who have downloaded TikTok are opening it every day.
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube are all hovering around the 95% mark when it comes to daily engagement rates.
What Does This Mean for Marketers?
If nothing else, this means TikTok is an app that should at least be in your periphery if it isn’t already.
Perhaps it’s worth added consideration if video marketing to young adults is a key component of your marketing strategy.
For others, I recommend waiting to see what the numbers look like over the next few months and whether or not this growth continues.
