Short-form video app, TikTok, has continued to exert dominance in the web space. The social media app has recorded ground-breaking milestones since early 2021, accumulating more than a billion monthly users as people around the world flock in to either create contents or watch contents created by other on the app. Now it’s ending the year with another bang.
TikTok has dethroned Google as the world’s most popular domain, according to rankings from web security company Cloudflare. Cloudfare’s 2021 Year In Review Internet Rankings said TikTok got into the high traffic zone for the first time in February, but got to the top spot from August, keeping consistent high internet traffic.
“It was on February 17, 2021, that TikTok got the top spot for a day. Back in March, TikTok got a few more days and also in May, but it was after August 10, 2021, that TikTok took the lead on most days. There were some days when Google was #1, but October and November were mostly TikTok’s days, including on Thanksgiving (November 25) and Black Friday (November 26),” Cloudflare said.
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Cloudfare’s 2021 ranking is a significant shift from the preceding year, when TIkTok ranked 7th, behind Google, Facebook, Amazon and others. Google.com — which also includes Maps, Translate, and News among others — ended the previous year as the leader in Cloudflare’s 2020 rankings.
TikTok overcame the threat of being kicked out of the United States by the administration of former president, Donald Trump, to experience its best year since it was launched globally in 2018.
As of July this year, TikTok has recorded more than three billion downloads, equaling a record only held by Facebook before, according to data from Sensor Tower.
The pandemic appeared to have triggered massive use of TikTok as people of all ages flocked to the app. According to Statistica, TikTok saw growth in usage of 180% among 15-25 year olds. In the first quarter of 2020, when the effects of COVID-19 started to impact many around the world, TikTok saw 315 million downloads worldwide, Tug Agency reported.
TikTok.com has leaped seven places, ahead of Google, Facebook and Amazon, to claim the first spot at the end of 2021.
Here’s the full list of the top 10 most popular domains according to Cloudfare’s 2021 Year In Review Internet Rankings.
TikTok.com
Google.com
Facebook.com
Microsoft.com
Apple.com
Amazon.com
Netflix.com
YouTube.com
Twitter.com
WhatsApp.com
Besides paying creators for their contents, TikTok’s success has been attributed to its algorithm, which the company has been keeping a secret. Last year, the Chinese government viciously resisted Trump’s administration’s attempt to get TikTok to share its algorithm over concerns that the app is harvesting personal data of American users for the Chinese military.
According to a document which was leaked earlier this month, the app purposefully diversifies its homepage its famous For You Page so users don’t get bored.
However, being on top spot of domain traffic does not make TikTok the biggest social media platform, the app still has a catchup to do.
Cloudflare’s ranking includes lists of the most popular social media domains, most popular e-commerce platforms, and most popular video streaming sites.
In e-commerce, Amazon leads as the most popular domain, followed by Taobao, Ebay, and Walmart. While in Netflix, YouTube, and HBOMax reign as the most popular video streaming sites.
Combining this ranking with data from Insider Intelligence, Domain Journal noted that TikTok still has a long way to go before reaching the height of the biggest social media site.
According to Insider Intelligence (formerly eMarketer) report, TikTok surpassed Snapchat and Twitter in global user numbers, but is well behind Facebook and Instagram. This means TikTok is the third largest social media platform worldwide.
Cloudflare’s ranking does not mean TikTok now has more users than Facebook and Google, it only means that social media site, TikTok.com, received more traffic than any other domain.
However, TikTok is expected to see a 15.1% growth in global users next year, holding a according to Insider Intelligence. This means TikTok will hold a 20% share of overall social media users by the end of 2022.