TikTok - statistics & facts
TikTok videos revolutionized the social media environment. With its short dances and irreverent Gen Z commentaries, the social video app’s immense popularity came to mirror some of the most significant technological trends of the past decade: the shift from desktop to mobile, users’ short-video preference, and innovative ads.
Initially launched in China as Douyin, TikTok’s rise to challenge the big names of traditional social media platforms within the span of just a few years. With its fresh short video format and tune repetition, the app came to represent a cultural phenomenon that attracted users in several prominent digital markets. Since its initial international launch, TikTok's parent company, the Beijing-based ByteDance, has been the subject of controversy and ban initiatives. India was the first market to ban the platform in 2020, and the United States attempted to force the sale of the platform to a domestic entity by January 2025. Despite controversies and legal issues, ByteDance managed to launch other popular applications, such as CapCut and Lemon8, which continue to rank among the most used apps worldwide.
ByteDance: the company behind TikTok
TikTok is a video-sharing social media app launched on the international market in 2017. The platform is owned by Beijing-based tech company ByteDance, which is behind the release of several popular apps including Toutiao, CapCut, and Lemon8. In 2024, ByteDance was the leading unicorn worldwide, with a valuation of 220 billion U.S. dollars. While mainstream social media platforms have been struggling with protecting their growth, ByteDance generated 73 billion U.S. dollars in revenues in the first quarter of 2024, up by 35 percent compared the corresponding quarter in 2023.TikTok users: young, eager, and connected
TikTok allows users to create, edit, and share short-form video clips that can be enhanced with filters and accompanied by the latest music trends. The platform comes as a free-to-download app, a factor that made onboarding easy for mobile users - who currently represent over 96 percent of the global digital population. In 2024, TikTok was estimated to have an audience of around two billion users worldwide, reaching approximately 90 percent of all internet users in Vietnam, Chile, and Thailand as of July 2024.The U.S. TikTok ban progression
In April 2024, a bill ruling the sale of TikTok completed its road from the U.S. Senate to the White House. The bill demanded TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to either sell the platform to a local player until January 2025 or face a complete ban from the U.S. market. The main reason behind the ban is the alleged data collection malpractice. The company, estimated to have created a total of 4.8 billion euros of GDP contribution in the European region has been fighting the ban in front of the U.S. Supreme Court basing its defense also on the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.Initially launched in China as Douyin, TikTok’s rise to challenge the big names of traditional social media platforms within the span of just a few years. With its fresh short video format and tune repetition, the app came to represent a cultural phenomenon that attracted users in several prominent digital markets. Since its initial international launch, TikTok's parent company, the Beijing-based ByteDance, has been the subject of controversy and ban initiatives. India was the first market to ban the platform in 2020, and the United States attempted to force the sale of the platform to a domestic entity by January 2025. Despite controversies and legal issues, ByteDance managed to launch other popular applications, such as CapCut and Lemon8, which continue to rank among the most used apps worldwide.
