Between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020, the number of TikTok monthly active users experienced its biggest jump in Singapore, growing by 187 per cent from 334,000 to 961,000.
Speaking to TODAY, Ms Lexi Sydow, the head of insights at data.ai, said that TikTok has grown phenomenally in Southeast Asia. Over the last five years, the number of monthly active users in Singapore has grown by more than eight times as of the second quarter of this year, in line with Malaysia and faster than Vietnam.
Within the region, the rate of growth was the highest in Indonesia, where monthly active users grew 17 times between the second quarter of 2018 and the second quarter of 2022.
She also noted that while TikTok ranks fourth for social media apps in Singapore by total time spent on Android phones, behind WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, its average monthly time spent per user stood at 19.8 hours, surpassing Facebook (18.3 hours a month), WhatsApp (16 hours a month) and Instagram (9.5 hours a month)
Dr Crystal Abidin, an associate professor of Internet studies at Curtin University in Australia, said that in Singapore, TikTok pandemic gave local influencers who were unable to shoot content overseas, another outlet to produce content.
TikTok’s “come as you are” culture where its creators can post casual videos of themselves at home allowed these influencers to present a more amateur side of themselves. It also gave them an avenue to continue producing content on a different platform without impacting their other personas or branded identities on other sites such as Instagram, Facebook or YouTube, said Dr Crystal.
Isolation during the pandemic also gave older, millennial influencers who were in their late 20s to late 30s the time to learn how to use TikTok and overcome the inertia of using another new app, she added.
But it was only when brands realised that TikTok had commercial value that the app truly went mainstream, said Dr Crystal, citing examples of how restaurants and alcohol brands turned to TikTok influencers to market their products and services during the pandemic.
Professor Lim Sun Sun from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) said that she expects TikTok’s user base in Singapore to grow beyond its younger, teenage audience with non-entertainment personalities such as politicians starting to take TikTok more seriously as a platform for engagement.
In response to TODAY’s queries, a TikTok spokesperson from Singapore said the platform “continues to see strong growth in its audience reach and engagement”, with more than 1 billion people globally coming to TikTok every month. Nearly one out of four global users came from Southeast Asia, with its user base in the region exceeding 240 million, up by 85 per cent year-on-year.
The spokesperson said that “it was only natural” for online platforms such as TikTok to see an increase in user activity during the pandemic when more people stayed at home, with TikTok playing a part in “connecting and meaningfully engaging communities even while physically apart”.
During the pandemic, TikTok saw a significant increase in daily accumulated engagement on videos as well as an uptick in video creation, especially content related to spreading positivity and educating people on hygiene practices.
“We’ve also seen this increase in TikTok user activity continue even as restrictions eased in Singapore — leading to the platform surpassing 1 billion active global users monthly in September 2021,” said the spokesperson.
LIVING OFF THE TIKTOK DREAM
As TikTok’s popularity grows globally, so has its efforts to move beyond being a platform for trendy dance sequences — to one which promotes commerce.
To allow TikTokers to monetise their fame, the app has launched several features, including TikTok Creator Marketplace and TikTok Live in 2019.
In May this year, TikTok also introduced a subscription service for its TikTok Live where content creators can generate recurring revenue from fans through additional perks such as subscriber-only chats.
All seven TikTok creators whom TODAY interviewed said that they have made money from participating in brand sponsorships or publicising services on the platform.
Ms Liel, the 24-year-old TikToker, said that the rates for branded TikTok videos are usually in the range of thousands of dollars. Her highest-paid project on TikTok was a “five-figure number” while her least lucrative projects are usually in exchange for the products that she is promoting.