4 Key Facts about TikTok’s Influence in Asia By Bradian Muliadi  | Aug 04, 2020 08:33

Although marketers often look to the United States for the latest TikTok trends, TikTok’s popularity is actually more largely impactful in Asia, especially in China and India whereby the majority of the short-form video app’s audience base resides.  Here are a few quick interesting facts you need to know about TikTok’s influence in Asia:

1. TikTok Livestreaming is One of The Biggest Drivers of its Success

Understanding the growth of TikTok in Asia, and the world often requires us to look at its Chinese version, Douyin. Douyin has many fierce competitors in its homeland China, but what sets it apart from the others is its rich livestreaming features that now even function as an effective social commerce channel. The live streaming revenue Douyin has captured so far is estimated to be five times that of TV in China. It is also the number one most downloaded app in China for live streams.

2. Aside from China, TikTok is Most Talked-about in Indonesia and Japan

Based on research from social listening tools, TikTok (Douyin) is unsurprisingly most discussed in China, but right after that, Indonesia and Japan come as second and third. TikTok audiences in these countries are not only large and fast-growing but also high-engaged, which signals great product-market fit of the rising social app among diverse population demographics ranging from users in developed to developing nations.

3. In Southeast Asia alone, there were 190 million TikTok Downloads in 2019

TikTok seems to manage to tap into emerging markets well because aside from their massive success that started in China, they are also growing rapidly in the Southeast Asia region. In 2019 alone, there have been 190 million TikTok downloads in the region. With TikTok’s 2 billion global downloads milestone achieved earlier this year, it is possible that the Southeast Asia download numbers have accelerated further in 2020. According to App Annie, the average time spent on TikTok in Southeast Asia is up to 3 minutes and 38 seconds.

4. TikTok is Tapping into SMEs in Indonesia

Indonesia, a country that is accelerating the process of digitizing Small and Medium Enterprises, has become one of TikTok’s key targeted demographic for exploring social commerce capabilities. According to Indonesian TikTok representatives, the Bytedance-owned company aims to digitally empower as many as 6 million SMEs with its advertising and social commerce features.