Nearly 2.5 million Australians using TikTok – up over 850,000 (+52.4%) during first half of 2020

The latest Roy Morgan data shows nearly 2.5 million Australians were using TikTok in an average four weeks – equivalent to 10.5% of the population aged 6 years and older.

TikTok has grown its user base by over 850,000 (+52.4%) during the first half of 2020 to be easily the fastest growing social media company in Australia this year in terms of user growth.

Women and girls comprise over 60% of all Australian TikTok users

TikTok has a predominantly female user base with 1.5 million women and girls now using the popular site, up over 380,000 (+34.3%) since the second half of 2019. In comparison 985,000 men and boys now use TikTok, up over 470,000 (+91.6%), and with male use of the service now growing faster.

TikTok is dominated by Generation Alpha & Generation Z – over 70% of all users

TikTok is also far more popular among younger Australians than older Australians. Over a quarter of Australians in the youngest Generation Alpha (28%) are now using TikTok – a total of 746,000 Young Australians. Generation Alpha comprises those born from 2006 until today.

There is also a significant TikTok user base among the slightly older Generation Z born 1991-2005 with over 1,040,000 Australians (20%) in this age group now using the new short video service.

The rate of TikTok usage then drops off significantly with only 9% of Millennials (463,000), 4% of Generation X (177,000) and less than 2% of either Baby Boomers or Pre-Boomers using TikTok.

Australians using TikTok website or app by Gender & Generation* – June 2020

Source 1: Roy Morgan Single Source, January – June 2020, n=8,124. Base: Australians aged 14+. Source 2: Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey, January – June 2020, n=997. Base: Young Australians aged 6-13 years old. *Generations: Pre-Boomers (born before 1946), Baby Boomers (born 1946-60), Gen X (born 1961-75), Millennials (born 1976-90), Generation Z (born 1991-2005), Gen Alpha (born since 2006).

TikTok grows user base by over 200,000 amongst Young Australians in Generation Alpha

Young Australians aged 6-13 years old are a tech-savvy generation and over 2.1 million of this still growing Generation Alpha (80%) use some type of social media or online community in an average four weeks.

By far the leading service used by Generation Alpha is the Google-owned video site YouTube with over 1.9 million using YouTube in an average four weeks, up 27,000 (+1.4%) since December 2019. Unlike other social networks YouTube is generally used without requiring an online account for access.

Other leading social networks and online communities such as TikTok and Instagram generally require registering an account to gain access to the full capabilities of the service.

Amongst these services TikTok is now used by 746,000, up 209,000 (+38.9%) in Generation Alpha and has jumped well ahead of popular photo and video sharing site Instagram used by 494,000, and barely changed on late 2019.

Drilling down further into Generation Alpha reveals that 523,000 (39%) of 10-13 year olds now use TikTok compared to 223,000 (17%) of the younger 6-9 year olds.

Generation Alpha: Top 5 Social Networks & Online Communities – June 2020

Source: Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey, January – June 2020, n=997. Base: Young Australians aged 6-13 years old and also known as Generation Alpha (born since 2006).

Michele Levine, CEO Roy Morgan, says TikTok has been growing quickly with its user base increasing by over 850,000 in the first half of 2020 to 2.5 million Australians:

“The ‘new kid’ on the social media scene has continued its strong growth in the first half of 2020 with nearly 2.5 million Australians now using TikTok in an average four weeks. This represents over one-in-ten Australians aged 6 years and older.

“Women and girls are the dominant gender on the platform comprising around 1.5 million of the TikTok userbase compared to just under 1 million men and boys – although both have grown strongly in number in 2020.

“TikTok is most popular amongst young Australians aged under 30 in Generation Z (born 1991-2005) and Generation Alpha (born since 2006). Of the nearly 2.5 million Australians using TikTok in an average four weeks over 70% (1,786,000) are in either Generation Z (1,040,000) or Generation Alpha (746,000).

“Australia’s ‘digital natives’ born this century have grown up surrounded by powerful and frictionless technology as the norm and have taken quickly to TikTok. The highest rate of usage is for ‘tweens’ aged 10-13 years old with nearly 40% on TikTok and teens aged 14-17 years old with almost 30% on the platform.

“Amongst Generation Alpha TikTok is far more widely used than the well-known Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Only the ubiquitous YouTube is more widely used and the videos on YouTube are more readily accessible without the need for signing up for an account.

“Roy Morgan closely tracks the evolving new media space including Social Networks and Online Communities. To learn more about how different Australians choose to engage with social media as well as legacy media industries and what business models will succeed in our increasingly inter-connected and digitized world be sure to contact Roy Morgan for our unmatched qualitative and quantitative analysis based on in-depth interviews with over 50,000 Australians each year.”

These results are based on in-depth Roy Morgan Single Source interviews with more than 8,000 Australians aged 14+ during the 6 months to June 2020 and around 1,000 interviews with Young Australians aged 6-13 years old during the same time period.

View our range of Social Media and Online Communities Profiles.

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