TikTok Australia has proven itself as a fierce competitor in the social media world, with its local headcount increasing at a phenomenal rate. And now, according to Mumbrella, TikTok is very much biting at the heels of Facebook, and could soon even be eating into its user numbers and revenues.
Meta recently shared in its Q2 update that Facebook’s monthly active users (MAUs) were at 2.93 billion, compared to an expected 2.94 billion. Just under a year ago, TikTok reached one billion MUAs worldwide ( approximately seven million of which are in Australia). TikTok’s advanced algorithm has been credited as the reason why the platform continues to generate such strong, consistent growth.
Although Facebook is still well ahead of TikTok when it comes to local revenue, it goes without saying that TikTok may potentially end up overtaking Facebook in terms of relevance, growth and user numbers.
Last year, Facebook Australia’s total advertising revenue was $1.1 billion, and TikTok’s was almost US$50 million - an increase from US$15.5 million in November 2019 to December 2020.
Meta also reported fallen revenues since 2021 in the Q2 reporting, with monthly user numbers appearing quite stagnant.
Owned by Chinese, Beijing-headquartered multinational ByteDance, TikTok is privately held and reportedly valued at $140 billion. Experts estimate that TikTok’s market share in social networking will top 20% this year, reaching near 25% by 2024. Bloomberg also revealed that TikTok’s annual revenues were $4.6 billion in 2021. They are expected to reach $12 billion by the end of this year.
