TikTok claims 1.5hr average daily engagement; Instagram a more common habit

New data from SensorTower shows that Instagram is opened every day by more of its install base (39%) than TikTok (29%), but TikTok keeps its users for far longer – behind these figures sit significant behavioural changes that could affect the whole internet.

Why it matters

Anecdotal reports had suggested that TikTok had built something resembling the samizdat from Infinite Jest – an entertainment that users literally can’t stop watching. Q2 data from the app analytics firm suggests TikTok’s stickiness is really quite intense.

Meanwhile, Instagram leads in terms of daily opens. These users are classified in SensorTower terms as “power users”. While the image-led app is clearly the leader, the data shows how Facebook – remember that name? – is still incredibly well used, with 27% of its install base classed as power users.

Deep behavioural change

At an industry conference this week, Google’s SVP for knowledge and information organisation, Prabhakar Raghavan, noted how apps like Instagram and TikTok are not only taking up time and engagement but are starting to carve out a place in Google’s core businesses.

“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search,” he said in comments reported by TechCrunch. “They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

In context: consumer love amid regulatory scrutiny

With great fame comes great scrutiny. TikTok remains in a tricky spot as the US’s Federal Communications Commission has asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing evidence that Americans’ user data was repeatedly accessed from China (ByteDance, the app’s parent company, is headquartered in Beijing).

TikTok responded with the assertion that protections were in place and that data is transferred around the world for engineering purposes but is kept to the highest security standards.

Meanwhile, in Europe TikTok has had to suspend a planned change to privacy measures that would affect targeting data – SocialMediaToday has a great explainer.

It comes at a time when TikTok is working hard to keep both users and advertisers happy. For the latter it has introduced an “Inventory Filter” to help brands tailor their brand safety and suitability on the platform.

Sourced from SensorTower, TechCrunch, CNBC, TikTok, SocialMediaToday