More than 1.6 million Australians are using TikTok in an average of four weeks, according to the latest Roy Morgan research.
Social media network TikTok is a website and app that allows users to create and share 15-second videos.
In Australia, females comprise two-thirds of the current TikTok user base, with over 1.1 million females using TikTok compared to males (510,000).
Unsurprisingly, Roy Morgan found that the social networking site is more popular among younger Australians than older Australians, with over a fifth of Australian users born after 2006 (Generation Alpha).
There is also a significant TikTok user base among the slightly older Generation Z born 1991-2005 with over 670,000 Australians (14 per cent) in this age group now using the service.
The rate of TikTok usage then drops off significantly with only 6 per cent of Millennials (308,000), 2 per cent of Generation X (88,000) and less than 1 per cent of either Baby Boomers or Pre-Boomers using TikTok.
These results are based on in-depth Roy Morgan Single Source interviews with more than 25,000 Australians aged 14+ over the 6 months to December 2019 and over 1,000 interviews with Young Australians aged 6-13 years old during the same time period.
Why is TikTok so popular with Generation Alpha?
Roy Morgan said that by far the leading service used by Generation Alpha isYouTube, with nearly 1.9 million (72 per cent) using YouTube in an average four weeks.
The research body believes this is popular with the youngest generation because, unlike other top social networks and online communities, YouTube is generally used without requiring an online account for access.
Other leading social networks and online communities such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook generally require registering an account to gain access to the full capabilities of the service.
Amongst these services TikTok is now used by 537,000 (21 per cent) in Generation Alpha and is just ahead of well-known photo and video sharing site Instagram used by 490,000 (19 per cent). Both are over three times as popular as Facebook (163,000) and Pinterest (153,000) amongst Generation Alpha.
Of TikTok’s Generation Alpha users. 420,000 (31 per cent) of 10-13 year olds now use the service compared to almost 120,000 (9 per cent) of the younger 6-9 year olds.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said “TikTok is no doubt an unknown quantity to many Australians, but it is increasingly popular amongst the ‘digital natives’ of Gen Z (born 1991-2005) and Gen Alpha (born since 2006).”
