Regardless of ongoing challenges from rival platforms, together with regulatory issues, and even restrictions in some areas, TikTok continues to go from power to power. And in line with the newest information from App Annie, the app’s progress momentum received’t be slowing down any time quickly.

As per App Annie’s 2022 Cellular Forecast report, TikTok is ready to surpass 1.5 billion customers within the subsequent twelve months, as its cultural affect continues to unfold around the globe.

That may put it properly forward of Instagram, which stays on a billion actives, a quantity it first reported again in 2018 and hasn’t up to date since. Which, in itself, is a bit of unusual. Has Instagram’s progress merely stopped – and in that case, what does that imply for the app’s broader reputation?

App Annie’s predictions have been strong previously too. Final November, App Annie predicted that TikTok would surpass a billion energetic customers in 2021, which it did again in September.

As App Annie notes (above), TikTok’s progress fee is unprecedented, with the app changing into a cultural drive sooner than another platform in historical past. A few of that, after all, comes on the again of established tendencies – Fb and Instagram had a more durable time reaching their first billion customers as a result of they wanted to ascertain new recurring behaviors, which TikTok has benefited from in its rise.

Besides, the app’s fast ascension is critical – and that is with out India, which, at one stage, was TikTok’s largest person market, at 200 million month-to-month actives. It’s pretty secure to imagine that had TikTok not been banned in India again in June 2020, that its Indian person base would now be nearer to 500 million, which might imply that TikTok would already be at that 1.5 billion person market at this stage.

It’s wonderful to contemplate how TikTok has been in a position to obtain such robust efficiency in an more and more crowded social media market. Snapchat as soon as seemed to be set for related large progress, until Instagram copied Tales and slowed it proper down, which is identical playbook that Instagram’s father or mother firm Meta has adopted with TikTok, by including Reels on each Fb and Instagram in an effort to steal viewers share again from a rising potential rival.

However much more than simply that, YouTube has additionally added Shorts, Snapchat added Highlight, and different apps have examined related TikTok-like instruments. And but, even with all of those competing instruments being pitted in opposition to it, TikTok has remained resilient.

Removed from slowing it down, if something, TikTok has solely gained extra viewers on account of these counter-growth efforts.

How has TikTok been in a position to hold profitable, the place others have wilted within the face of the established giants?

The important thing lies in its algorithm matching, which continues to be much better than another platform at offering a unending stream of content material that’s extremely attuned to your particular pursuits.

As anybody who’s used TikTok just a few instances will know, the personalized ‘For You’ feed of movies that you simply’ll seemingly be excited by may be very addictive, and excellent at shortly aligning together with your private pursuits.

The benefit that TikTok has over different platforms is its full-screen feed, which signifies that each motion you are taking when every video is on display is indicative of your response to that particular clip. Swipe previous shortly and that video’s content material is clearly not of curiosity, watch the entire thing by and that’s a robust sign, whereas tapping on any component additionally supplies clear response information for its matching.

Instagram doesn’t have the identical, as there are sometimes a number of posts on display, and whereas Reels might be extra particularly attuned on this approach, its algorithm is inferior to detecting your pursuits, with Reels typically being overly delicate to trending content material, then exhibiting you extra of it with out making an allowance for broader context.

TikTok’s system is much better at figuring out extra intricate matches in response to your actions, which is why it’s so addictive to so many, and that’s helped it proceed so as to add customers, at the same time as different apps have tried to duplicate its key options.

As a result of, actually, they will’t, or at the least they haven’t been in a position to as but. And whereas it looks like each Meta and YouTube ought to, at some stage, be capable to determine it out, the truth that neither has made important floor as but might properly level to TikTok merely having higher capability, and higher viewers understanding, than its rivals, which once more factors to ongoing success for the app, which is now arguably the cooler place to be for creators both approach.

Monetization is the subsequent step, and offering comparative capability for high stars to make as a lot cash on TikTok as they will in different apps. However that, too, is shifting alongside, with the platform’s eCommerce and model/creator partnership instruments evolving shortly, facilitating extra alternatives on this entrance.

In case you haven’t thought of TikTok as a possible platform in your advertising and marketing efforts, in 2022, it might be time to provide it some extra thought. Not all manufacturers will thrive on TikTok, and it does require a extra devoted, organic-type strategy, so that you do have to know the platform-specific tendencies, or work with creators which might be in-tune with such. However the alternatives, for the suitable model, with the suitable strategy, might be important.

And so they’re rising extra day-after-day, with its progress momentum constructing. At this fee, TikTok might properly have over 2 billion energetic customers by 2023, and much more cultural relevance around the globe.

It might not be a platform that comes naturally in your promotions, and it might not be one that you simply your self are excited by. However in 2022, it’s seemingly value familiarizing your self with the newest TikTok tendencies, and getting a greater understanding of the app.

You may obtain App Annie’s full 2022 App Predictions report right here.