TikTok's growth rate collapsed in the final quarter of 2023, according to research data.
The Chinese-produced app, which demolished social media competitors in global daily average users (DAUs) from 2020 through the first half of 2022, saw its traffic plummet in final three months last year.
TikTok fell behind Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, according to a quarterly review conducted by Evercore ISI analysts using Sensor Tower data.
TikTok's average monthly U.S. users between the ages of 18 and 24 declined by nearly 9% from 2022 to 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported recently, citing analytics firm Data.ai.
News of TikTok's traffic decrease comes as House Republicans move ahead with a bill that would require Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban in the U.S.
Former President Donald Trump has said that he still believes TikTok poses a national security risk but is opposed to banning it because doing so would help its rival, Facebook, which he continues to lambaste over his 2020 election loss.
Business Insider reported that a significant segment of TikTok's users are growing up and taking less time to watch videos.
"Let's say those users were about 13 when they first downloaded the app in 2016 and 2017," Business Insider wrote. "Now, these people are at least 20 years old. They have full-time jobs or are studying at college. For many, their parents no longer do their laundry, cook their meals, and ferry them to and from sports games, meetings, and other engagements."
Business Insider's Alistair Barr, father of two daughters, wrote that he saw firsthand how TikTok users' behaviors have changed as they got older.
His older daughter, now in her second year of college, is "part of a competition in her house right now to see who can limit screen time the most."
"My younger daughter lives at home and is still in high school, so her daily TikTok intake is still massive," Barr wrote. "She's leaving for college in the fall, so she'll eventually face a similar dilemma with her time."
The Journal recently reported that TikTok users in their 20s noticed that using the app got in the way of sleep, work, household chores, and relationships.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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