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Coronavirus Social Media Technology

TikTok numbers surge in Europe amid ongoing lockdowns

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By John Glenday, Reporter

October 5, 2020 | 3 min read

TikTok has registered stratospheric growth across western Europe as cooped up populations have been seeking alternative sources of entertainment during the various lockdowns.

TikTok

TikTok numbers break down surge in Europe

According to Bloomberg, a quarter of all Britons now use TikTok every month, with 17m hardcore users spending over an hour a day on the app. The growth is equivalent to a UK contingent that is almost half as large as Facebook’s, yet has been assembled in just three years.

TikTok in numbers

  • According to a presentation given by TikTok's marketing arm, seen by Bloomberg, the network's 17m UK users routinely spend 66 minutes per day on the app, accessing it 13 times per day on average.

  • This compares favourably to Facebook, estimated by We Are Social and Hootsuite, to have 37m UK users.

  • TikTok's burgeoning reach across western Europe is reflected in France which now counts 11m users, also logging in for an hour per day on average.

  • Neighbouring countries have also witnessed an explosion in interest with Germany, Spain and Italy drawing 10.7m, 9.8m and 8.8m users respectively.

  • The most enthusiastic TikTok'ers were found to hail from Norway where 1.2m users sign in an impressive 17 times per day, to consume 74 minutes of videos.

  • TikTok has not commented publicly on the European surge.

Why it matters

  • Last month TikTok celebrated attaining 100m users across the continent as confined consumers turn to video-based pranks, dancing and lip-syncing to see them through the pandemic.

  • The insight into TikTok's performance stand significantly in excess of prior third-party estimates, indicating the degree to which the social network has benefitted from lockdown measures.

  • The most recent best guess from eMarketer suggested that TikTok would not reach 12.5m monthly users until 2023 at the earliest.

  • Owned by China's ByteDance the service has long been courted by marketers keen to reach younger audiences, reinforced by the leaked presentation which confirms four in 10 British monthly users lie between the ages of 18 and 24.

  • Moreover, the report states that the vast majority of European TikTok users are women, with 65% of people accessing the UK app being women.

  • The proportion of female users rises further still in Spain where the proportion stands at 75%, falling to 56% of users in Norway and Sweden.

Coronavirus Social Media Technology

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TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. Our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok has global offices including Los Angeles,...

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