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While YouTube is still bigger overall, TikTok has taken over one of its sectors.
YouTube is, and has been for a long while now, the primary choice in online viewing. Despite some… questionable development decisions from Google and ads that are only becoming more annoying with time, its sheer ubiquity and accessibility makes almost any potential alternatives nonstarters. However, if there was a single video-viewing platform that could have a shot of dethroning YouTube, it would likely be ByteDance’s rising star, TikTok.
According to statistics gathered by app analytics firm App Annie, TikTok has managed to successfully overtake YouTube on the time its user spend watching video content, at least on mobile Android platforms where App Annie can gather data. As of this past June, in the United States TikTok users watch 24 hours of content per month, a solid lead over the average 22 hours and 40 minutes watched on YouTube. There’s an even bigger gap over in the UK, where the average TikTok user watched 26 hours of content per month versus only 16 hours on YouTube.
When counting all platforms together, including PCs and streaming devices, YouTube is still decisively on top. That said, while this data only takes US and UK users on Android devices into account, it does pay to remember that, as a Chinese-developed app, TikTok is much bigger on its home turf. The gap would likely not be as large as one might think if all users from all sources were taken into account.
TikTok reportedly overtakes YouTube in US average watch time https://t.co/k5sAAIn1mx pic.twitter.com/we363b7VsW
— The Verge (@verge) September 7, 2021
“YouTube’s mass audience means it’s getting more demographics that are comparatively light internet users… it’s just reaching everyone who’s online,” Jamie MacEwan of Enders Analysis explained to the BBC. “YouTube’s mass audience means it’s getting more demographics that are comparatively light internet users… it’s just reaching everyone who’s online.”
“TikTok was spending big to attract users, but they were not necessarily hanging around for long compared to other social media,” he added. “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.”
