TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

App users in the UK and US are spending more time on TikTok than on YouTube, a new report suggests.

Data from app monitoring firm App Annie indicates that average time per user spent on the apps is higher for TikTok, indicating high levels of engagement.

App Annie characterised TikTok as having “upended the streaming and social landscape”.

However, YouTube retains the top spot for overall time spent - not per user - as it has many more users overall.

The Google-owned video giant has an estimated two billion monthly users, while TikTok’s most recent public figures suggested it had about 700 million in mid-2020.

App Annie specialises in analysis of the apps market.

The “time spent” metric in its report only accounts for Android phones - but also does not include China, where TikTok - known locally as Douyin - is a major app.

‘Mass audience’

“YouTube still leads TikTok in overall time spent, including in the UK,” explained Jamie MacEwan, from Enders Analysis.

“YouTube’s mass audience means it’s getting more demographics that are comparatively light internet users… it’s just reaching everyone who’s online.”

The most-invested YouTube users probably “match or surpass” the engagement of TikTokers, he said.

But “none of that’s to say TikTok isn’t a success”, he added.

“TikTok was spending big to attract users, but they were not necessarily hanging around for long compared to other social media,” he said.

“Now we know that in the US and UK, TikTok has overhauled YouTube, and is reeling in Facebook… that’s a huge seal of approval.”

The “time spent” metric in App Annie’s report only accounts for Android phones - but also does not include China, where TikTok - known locally as Douyin - is a major app.

It shows that in the UK, TikTok surpassed YouTube back in June 2020, and has maintained its lead since. In the US, TikTok and YouTube traded places multiple times late last year before TikTok emerged on top in April 2021.

Other metrics tracked by the firm reflect TikTok’s increasing importance.

Among social, communication, photo, video and entertainment apps, TikTok is ranked as the most-downloaded worldwide since 2020. It also competes with YouTube for the top spot in consumer spending since last year.

Spendy streaming

App Annie’s report also suggests that apps with live-streaming - including TikTok - are fuelling a surge in money spent on creators.

Apps that have live-streaming as “a prominent feature” accounted for three-quarters of money spent in the top 25 social apps in the first half of 2021, the report says.

On gaming site Twitch, for example, viewers can purchase “Bits” - a virtual currency - and spend them to “cheer” streamers during a live stream. Or they can set up a recurring subscription to a creator’s channel in exchange for subscriber-only benefits.

Anyone earning on tiktok or growing accounts

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That’s insane. They’re really making moves.

they are which i why im looking into creating accounts and growing them while it’s still early

Not surprising at all. I haven’t been on YouTube in months. It’s funny how all the TT haters from last year are now joining the platform.

crazy stuff man, but it was expected as we all saw Tiktok getting bigger an bigger overtime at one point i would expect it to surpass all of them.

I wonder if Youtube shorts will help Youtube increase their average watch time in those countries. I’ve seen many shorts that have great engagement.

To each their own, I’m on youtube most out of all platforms personally, to unhealthy levels lol.

pretty sure it already does and will continue to do it. Not sure what they’ll do about direct rip offs from tiktok tho cuz those can bite back for copyright related issues.

All in all, its smart to watch TikTok and try to do smh there but it also has a lot of slack for being the trash content platform, lots of cringe stuff teenagers doind dodgy things etc.

A lot of YouTube fans don’t realize that TikTok is no longer just a cringe teen app for dancing videos. More and more content creators, businesses and artists are joining the platform.

Yes and no. You would have to be a retard to think such a massive platform does not have content variety. But the truth is - TikTok is very widely popular for its cringe videos done by teenagers snorting pre-workouts and doing fake social experiments for views. Sure, there’s a ton of good creators there. But a lot of rubbish like this as well which makes it less attractive for regular businesses that are not ‘trendy’ or clients. Again, with such massive audience and watch time its a great platform, but its not going to replace youtube or instagram or facebook anytime soon.

What I feel’s weird about TikTok, is that eventho everyone is on it (more than any platform you could say) - the growth requests I get every week are widely IG +++ and YT ; TikTok not much.

You could ask why ?

  • Either too early ?
    Maybe, but it has been some time now,

  • Either not premium enough ?
    Since 2 years, IG is premium versus TikTok, which is still left behind when it comes about influence. When you see someone with 500k on TikTok, you know that it’s probably not 500k on the Gram. People probably prefer growing their Instagram > TikTok if they can chose, and I think that’s the case.

Maybe one day the trend will reverse, it would be fun !

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As a TikTok user myself I can give you a simple answer. Growing a TikTok account is relatively easy compared to IG and YouTube. You could gain 10k followers overnight, especially before the most recent algorithm update. With no ads or specific strategies, it took me less than a month to grow an audience that took me almost 9 years on IG.

any tips for creating account? going to create one soon

I’ve only had one account since I started using TikTok, and they’ve made way too many algorithm changes since last year. A few months ago, any video would get on the FYP, while it’s more difficult now. I only post my own original content, using relevant/trending sounds. Rarely hashtags. Just keep posting daily, and see what works for you.

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cool yeah im going to a see a concert to see a very popular designer so hoping to make my first video at the concert hopefully I can run the video with ads or something to gain some followers

I think we are still early stages of tiktok anyone who successfully manages to create big accounts now will be reaping the benefits once it really takes off

Again, they recently changed the algorithm, so there is no more thousands of views on your very first video. I wouldn’t call almost a billion users “early stages”, but you can still give it a shot. Just a year ago, you could get thousands, if not millions of views on your very first video. Not sure if that’s still possible, but as long as your content is good, anything can happen.

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Yep not expecting anything crazy but will be good to test. Well it’s a chineses app and china has a huge population with the majority probably on tiktok. I could be wrong but i do still think we are in the early stages or about to leave it, I think the general public still thinks it’s an app only for kids. Most people with big accounts on IG dont even have tiktok accounts from what i’ve seen dont think i’ve seen any businesses open tiktok accounts either yet.

Another forum i post on which is bigger but similar to mp there is almost 0 interests for tiktok even on mp there is very little interests for tiktok. I’ve also looked around for tools and there seems be very no tools publically available that are not filled with bugs

Will be interesting to see what happens with tiktok over the next year

Actually, Chinese users can only use Douyin, which is the Chinese version of the app. You can’t see them on TikTok. A lot of huge accounts and businesses on IG and YouTube are getting their traffic from TikTok.

Personally, I don’t think using tools and automation is necessary for a personal TikTok account. If you’re managing multiple accounts, maybe that will help. I would advice you to learn more about it, since what you know is mainly information from the beginning of last year.

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In addition to that, brands like Amazon, Target, as well as huge TV shows and A list actors and musicians are already on the app. These forums are mainly built around automation tools, and in terms of that, TikTok is still a newbie, yeah.

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This is actually craaaazy, Tiktok is here to take over.