TikTok’s top for teens
TikTok has tightened its grip on the attention spans of teenagers. That was the conclusion from a new survey from Piper Sandler, which revealed that 38% of teens selected the short-form video app as their favorite social platform.
For you?
TikTok’s famed algorithm, at times unnervingly all-knowing, has long been pointed to as the reason behind its immense popularity and addictive nature. Its ‘For You’ page serves up, depending on your taste, a tailor-made concoction of cat clips, dance routines, food and fashion content.
That algorithm is clearly working for TikTok, as they extended their lead over Snapchat and Instagram, voted top by 30% and 20% of teens, respectively. Facebook and Twitter remain prohibitively “uncool”, with just 2% of teens naming them as their faves.
Interestingly, as those teens become adults, they increasingly turn to TikTok for more substantive content too — Pew Research estimates that roughly one-quarter of American adults under 30 are now regularly getting news from the Chinese company.
From here, it’s hard to imagine what would derail TikTok on its path to global domination. A ban by the US government is perhaps the biggest risk to TikTok, something that an increasing number of officials are now calling for, as concerns about Chinese state influence grow louder.
