From its inception in 2004, it took less than four years for Facebook to overtake Myspace in 2008. From that moment on, it has continued to dominate the social media landscape, with other platforms barely coming close in terms of active users. TikTok might change that.
TikTok, as we know it now, was released in 2017, but only for some markets outside of China. When it merged with Musical.ly in 2018, it launched worldwide, and thanks to its explosive growth, it now threatens to take Facebook’s crown.
BanklessTimes.com has gathered information on TikTok’s growth, and how it compared to not only Facebook, but all the other social media giants.
Comparing TikTok’s Active User Growth to Facebook’s Let’s dive into the numbers.
By the end of 2018 TikTok had roughly 271 million users. It continued growing more and more, reaching 1,719 million active users today, in 2022.
In comparison, Facebook already reached that number in early to mid 2018, according to Statista. However, what took Facebook 14 years, TikTok accomplished in less than four. The difference is quite substantial, but can we predict the future?
Looking at 2018, Facebook grew from roughly 1,750 million to 2,606 million active users in 2022 – an average annual growth rate of 12.2%. On the other hand, TikTok grew annually at a rate of 133.5% in that same period, more than ten times faster than what Facebook accomplished.
However, we should also observe the slowing down of this growth rate. Namely, Facebook only gained 106 million active users since 2021, while TikTok gained 319 million – respective increases of 4% and 18.2%
You will note that even taking this significantly slowed down rate of growth into account, TikTok is still growing much faster. If these lower growth rates remain stable, TikTok will reach 3,332 million active users in 2026 (taking into account the above mentioned yearly 18.2% growth rate). This will surpass Facebook’s estimated 2026 user base of 3,048 million (with its 4% annual growth rate).
Of course, we need to emphasize that this is only an estimate. There is no way to predict a new competitor showing up and disrupting the current social media ecosystem. Furthermore, we do not know whether TikTok will simply hit a plateau.
However, we do have to note that in 4 years, since 2018, TikTok has surpassed every one of its social network competitors, in terms of users, by far – Read more here at https://www.banklesstimes.com/news/2022/10/24/tiktok-could-take-over-facebook-in-less-than-4-years/
