Despite the fact that TikTok was launched internationally 12 years after its Google-owned rival, the Chinese-owned video-sharing site is expected to catch up with YouTube by 2024, when both are expected to earn $23.6 billion (£18.2 billion) in ad income. Last year, it overtook Snapchat’s worldwide ad take, which was previously the digital hangout of choice for adolescents and twentysomethings, and by the end of this year, it will have overtaken Twitter’s. This year, it is expected to increase its global ad income to $11.6 billion, surpassing Snapchat and Twitter combined. TikTok reached one billion users four years after its global introduction, in half the time it took Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram, and three years quicker than WhatsApp. Analysts at data.ai amended a projection that TikTok would reach 1.5 billion monthly active users this year earlier this week, after their study indicated that it had eclipsed that milestone by 100 million users in the first three months. The short-video app is also growing more addicting. Despite the platform’s purported restriction to those aged 13 and older, around 16% of three- and four-year-olds see TikTok material. Facebook has 2.9 billion monthly active users, and Instagram has another 2 billion, with Insider Intelligence estimating its 2024 ad sales at $85 billion and $82 billion, respectively. Despite this, it was revealed last month that the corporation had hired a lobbying firm to portray TikTok as a “serious danger, especially as a foreign-owned app.” Facebook has 2.9 billion monthly active users, and Instagram has another 2 billion, with Insider Intelligence estimating its 2024 ad sales at $85 billion and $82 billion, respectively. Despite this, it was revealed last month that the corporation had hired a lobbying firm to portray TikTok as a “serious danger, especially as a foreign-owned app.”
