The Big Read: Fuelled by the pandemic, TikTok boom unleashes the good, bad and ugly

Between your second quarter of 2019 and the 2nd quarter of 2020, the number of TikTok month-to-month active users skilled its biggest leap in Singapore, growing by 187 % from 334, 1000 to 961, 1000.

Talking with TODAY, Ms Lexi Sydow, the head of insights at data. ai, said that TikTok has grown phenomenally in Southeast Asia. During the last five years, the number of monthly active customers in Singapore has grown by more than 8 times as of the 2nd quarter of this season, in line with Malaysia plus faster than Vietnam.

Within the region, the rate of growth was the highest in Indonesia, where  monthly active users increased 17 times between your second quarter associated with 2018 and the 2nd quarter of 2022.

She furthermore noted that while TikTok ranks fourth just for social media apps in Singapore by total time spent on Android phones, behind WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, its average month-to-month time spent for each user stood from 19. 8 hrs, surpassing Facebook (18. 3 hours a month), WhatsApp (16 hours a month) and Instagram (9. 5 hours the month)

Doctor Crystal Abidin, an associate professor of Internet studies at Curtin University in Australia, stated that in Singapore, TikTok pandemic gave local influencers who were not able to shoot content abroad, another outlet to produce content.  

TikTok’s “come when you are” culture exactly where its creators may post casual movies of themselves at home allowed these influencers to present a more inexperienced side of them selves. It also gave them an avenue to continue creating content on a different platform without impacting their other gentes or branded identities on other websites such as Instagram, Fb or YouTube, said Dr Crystal.

Isolation during the outbreak also gave old, millennial influencers who were in their late twenties to late 30s the time to learn how to make use of TikTok and overcome the inertia of using another new app, she additional.

But it had been only when brands realised that TikTok acquired commercial value the fact that app truly went mainstream, said Dr Crystal, citing samples of how restaurants and alcohol brands considered TikTok influencers to advertise their products and services during the pandemic.  

Professor Lim Sun from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) said that the lady expects TikTok’s user base in Singapore to grow beyond the younger, teenage target audience with non-entertainment personalities such as politicians starting to take TikTok more seriously as a platform for engagement.  

In response to Nowadays 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 a single out of four worldwide users came from Southeast Asia, with its consumer base in the region going above 240 million, up by 85 per cent year-on-year.  

The spokesperson  said that “it was only natural” for on the internet platforms such as TikTok to see an increase in user activity throughout the pandemic when more people stayed at home, with TikTok actively playing a part in “connecting and meaningfully appealing communities even while literally apart”.

During the pandemic, TikTok noticed a significant increase in daily accumulated engagement upon videos as well as an uptick in movie creation, especially content material related to spreading positivity and educating individuals on hygiene procedures.

“We’ve also seen this embrace TikTok user exercise continue even as restrictions eased in Singapore — leading to the platform surpassing 1 billion dollars active global users monthly  in September 2021, ” mentioned the spokesperson.  

RESIDING OFF THE TIKTOK DREAM 

As TikTok’s popularity grows globally, so offers its efforts to relocate beyond being a system for trendy dancing 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 Reside in 2019.  

In May this year, TikTok also introduced a subscription service for the TikTok Live exactly where content creators can generate recurring revenue from fans via additional perks such as subscriber-only chats.

All seven TikTok creators whom TODAY interviewed said that they have made money through participating in brand sponsorships or publicising providers 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. The girl highest-paid project upon TikTok was a “five-figure number” while her least lucrative projects are usually in exchange for the products that she is promoting.