Social networks, as a phenomenon, emerged relatively recently. At first they were just popular, but not as popular as they are now. People used them from a computer, which was not so convenient, and the quality of the social networks themselves left much to be desired. Gradually, everything changed, and when it became possible to use them from a smartphone and tablet, there was an explosive growth in their popularity. Later they became not only an entertainment source, but also a news source. Now, on all major social networks, you can subscribe to news channels and be one of the first to receive important information. The quality of this information is another matter, but there is such a possibility. Now society has come to some difficult times and a lot is changing, but how will social networks behave in such conditions?
The popularity of this service is growing more than that of others.
How many users are on TikTok
According to analyst firm Sensor Tower, the popular TikTok service surpassed 2 billion users on Wednesday this week. Just think about this number if there are plus or minus 7.5 billion people on Earth. That is, more than every fourth user has installed this application. Including children, old people and poor people in Africa.
Sure, this is a cumulative metric that takes into account both iOS and Android audiences, but the number is really impressive. Separately, it is worth noting that the new milestone was reached just five months after reaching 1.5 billion users.
This application has been downloaded over 2,000,000,000 times. Impressive.
It can be concluded that this growth was facilitated by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced people to stay at home and look for new ways of entertainment. This applies not only to TikTok, but also to other services such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and many others. That is, all social networks and related services have gained wide popularity, as have services for video communication. Especially Zoom, whose audience has grown several times during this time. Although, he has enough “holes in the defense” that have yet to be fixed.
In which countries are social networks most popular
Everyone knows that India is a huge country, which together with China occupies a large share of the territory of its mainland, but an even larger share of the world's population. These two countries account for approximately 40 percent of the world's population.
Unsurprisingly, these markets can tip the scales of the popularity of any service very much. They can cause a serious growth in the popularity of something. Therefore, the success of TikTok and other services became possible thanks to India, China and also the United States. India stands out especially in this list. The platform has a lot of videos from users from this country.
The report does not indicate the exact number, but states that China is in second place with a share of 9.7%, and in third place is the United States with a result of 8.2%. What's especially interesting is that the popularity of TikTok in China falls short of India's. Usually the Chinese love their own things.
TikTok is most popular with young users and teens. They publish and watch short videos of 15 seconds on a topic. Videos can be accompanied by sound or music and be playful or educational.
There are many different videos in this service.
Practice and experience show that TikTok can make you watch and share videos for hours. Perhaps the reason for the popularity is the ease of viewing. You just need to flip through the tape and the video will play itself. There are those out there who make money on TikTok, which could make it another threat to YouTube, Instagram and even Twitter.
Can TikTok be banned?
Given the popularity of the TikTok service in the US, it would be foolish not to suggest that they might be interested, especially considering that it is of Chinese origin. It belongs to the Chinese company ByteDance and its growing popularity made it pay close attention.
The US is always skeptical of any app that leaves China. Because the country believes that China will use everything to spy on other countries. Of course, this may be true, but this is what always plays against any application from China.
US lawmakers said the app poses a threat to national security (surprised?). Because of this fear, some government agencies have already banned its use. However, we must pay tribute to the Chinese side. The servers that process information are taken out of the country and the data is not stored on the territory of the Middle Kingdom. But few people are interested in this.
Anything popular from China comes under scrutiny. Especially if it collects data.
How will social media evolve in the future?
As a result, we are now seeing not only the growing popularity of some temporary means of getting pleasure, but the full-fledged formation of something new. Practice shows that users quickly get used to social networks and actively use them after having tried just a couple of times.
Now everyone is trying them, and after a while, when the pandemic is over, they are unlikely to be abandoned. Moreover, the growing popularity of entertainment content now leads to the fact that companies have to cope with a very heavy load. So far, they only limit the quality of the picture, but at the same time increase the computing power and storage volumes. All of this will ultimately lead to the fact that high productivity will remain with us afterwards. And therefore, services will only work better after going through this tough test that they faced.