Does TikTok Continue To Dominate The World Despite Its Controversies?

Over the years, TikTok has continued to influence many people and even businesses. With the coronavirus forcing people to stay home, many scramble to find new ways of entertainment and interaction online. Hence, it’s not surprising at all that Chinese video-sharing social network, TikTok, garnered an immense number of downloads around the globe this year. 

iPrice Group gathered data from Deepaso, determining which countries had the highest TikTok download index and the top 3 entertainment apps in each country. This study indicates the number of new user acquisition and reveals the surge in Google search interests of products that are included in viral videos.

Despite TikTok’s controversies and its maturity in a market

The USA recorded the highest download index of TikTok videos despite its recent controversy with the app. For now, TikTok reigns as the USA’s #1 entertainment app as it wins reprieve from Trump’s ban orders.

Speaking of controversies, India is still high up in #8 despite being banned and having 0 downloads for quite a few months now. This goes to show that the video-sharing app garnered so many downloads in India during the first months of 2020. 

Interestingly, China falls behind the USA. The reason for this being so is due to the app’s maturity in the country. Despite that, Duoyin (what they call TikTok in China) still ranks #1 in the country as it continues to acquire more and more users. 

TikTok is the #1 most downloaded entertainment app in the West and Southeast Asia 

It seems that TikTok resonates really well in the West. iPrice recorded Germany, Canada, Italy, and the UK as part of the top 10 with the highest download index. Moreover, TikTok ranks as the most downloaded entertainment app in all the aforementioned countries. This is a glaring indication that the app is penetrating the Western market successfully this year by obtaining new users. 

TikTok is also becoming a big hit in a lot of Southeast Asian countries. For all SEA countries recorded, TikTok remains to be the #1 downloaded entertainment app. 

In the listed countries, Thailand and Vietnam have the third and fourth highest download index respectively this year. Given that both countries may face language barriers with English-speaking countries, this may indicate that the Thai and Vietnamese have recently started their own TikTok community. The same goes for Indonesia, as the country ranks #7. 

The Philippines only ranks #11 with the most TikTok downloads in the list of countries, indicating that Filipinos may have already downloaded the app before 2020. This makes a lot of sense, given that the Philippines is a predominantly English-speaking country, and this enables them to relate to English videos around the globe. Nevertheless, TikTok still ranks as the #1 downloaded entertainment app in the archipelago.

Businesses should consider; TikTok’s influence today is more impactful than we may think

Warehouse worker from Idaho, Nathan Apodaca, probably didn’t know he was going to receive a free truck, let alone recognition from music legends by creating a TikTok video of himself skateboarding, drinking cranberry juice, and singing along to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” 

Repaying Nathan with a truck was nothing compared to the surge of search interests Nathan’s video drove in Ocean Spray’s cran-raspberry juice. His viral video produced many other reaction videos, even from Fleetwood Mac themselves. Because of his video, Google trends recorded a 1,329% surge in interests for Ocean Spray after comparing this to the search interests in September, a month prior to the viral video. Ocean Spray is even reported to expect a surge in sales by next quarter.   This is every brand’s marketing dream and blessing from the sky. 

Ocean Spray wasn’t the only product that garnered a high surge in search interests due to a viral TikTok video. Urban Skin RX saw a shocking 2,558% increase in Google search volume in January, after a simple video from @niceoneashley showed the world the amazing effects of the skin product in reducing her acne scars. 

Similar results happened with Essence Kiss and The Ordinary AHA 30% and BHA 2% Peeling Solution. Both products saw an increase of 340% and 116% during the period the videos have gone viral. For The Ordinary’s case, however, its search volume interest kept increasing for two more months as it probably reproduced more organic videos from users talking about the product. 

Big brands are a different beast 

There’s been a video going around in May 2019 of people spraying shaving cream in their Crocs shoes before wearing them. Watching it is oddly satisfying, and since it is, this has become a viral thing for a while.

However, looking at Crocs’ Google search volume, there hasn’t been any notable shifts. This may indicate that renowned brands like Crocs don’t really garner more Google searches through guerilla TikTok videos and still continue to thrive with brand ambassadors (shoutout to J-Biebs).