What TikTok’s Growing Threat to YouTube Means

TikTok’s rise is often seen as a major threat to Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram. And for good reason. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has talked about how TikTok is ahead and he’s laid out plans for making Instagram’s home screen look a lot more like the short-form video app. But the way TikTok is rattling YouTube has generated less discussion. 

A new report from mobile analytics firm App Annie is a reminder of the pressure on Google’s video business, which produced $7 billion in ad revenue during the most recent quarter. Smartphone users downloaded TikTok more than any other social and entertainment app globally in both 2020 and in the first half of this year; YouTube wasn’t in the top 10 in either time frame. While YouTube still holds the top spot for overall time spent around the world (outside China), Android smartphone users in the U.S. and U.K. are spending more time on TikTok than YouTube, according to the report.