The Growing Popularity of TikTok in Nigeria
The Likes, Dislikes, and Privacy Concerns Surrounding the Fastest-Growing Social Platform
TikTok is rapidly gaining popularity among Nigerians as a social media platform. Its signature short videos, which incorporate music, filters, and other features, are gaining popularity, particularly among young people.
Its popularity in the country has also increased significantly as a result of the government's stay-at-home directive in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. As a result of the restriction, many Nigerians have turned to social media platforms for entertainment and social interaction.
The number of TikTok downloads increased by 12 percent in the second week of March, with approximately 28.5 million new downloads globally.
More than 800 million active users
TikTok is a video-sharing application that enables users to create and share videos in up to 60-second feeds. Since the app's global launch in 2017, its popularity has exploded.
The video app now has approximately 800 million active users, placing it ahead of Twitter and Snapchat as the world's ninth largest social network.
On Apple's and Google's respective app stores, the app has surpassed the 1 billion and 1.5 billion download milestones.
Lockdown is increasing popularity in Nigeria
TikTok has also grown in popularity in Nigeria, as many Nigerians have been participating in various video challenges on the app.
The platform enables users to express themselves creatively, whether through singing, dancing, lip-syncing to their favorite song, or performing stand-up comedy. This has aided it in sucking in a large number of young Nigerians and endeared it to them. Some of the videos created on the app are humorous and entertaining, garnering a large number of views.
Every day, the video-sharing app receives over 1 billion views.
TechNext conducted a random survey of TikTok users to fully encapsulate the growing trend. 80% of them began using the app in 2020. However, 50% of users indicated that they began using the app in response to the current pandemic-related stay-at-home directive.
50% of users began using TikTok during the stay-at-home policy.
Nigerians discovered TikTok primarily through other social media platforms
Surprisingly, funny videos and challenges created on TikTok are increasingly making their way to other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Whether or not this 'collaboration' is intentional remains to be seen. What we do know is that it is fueling TikTok's popularity among young Nigerians who were previously more invested in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, among other platforms.
70% of our population indicated that they learned about the app via other social media platforms such as WhatsApp or Twitter. 30% stated that they learned from friends.
Growing love for short videos
TikTok's short video is fostering a youth subculture. The app's ability to express themselves freely through the creation and viewing of entertaining videos has attracted a large number of young fans.
Chinonso, a member of the population surveyed, expressed his appreciation for the app's videos' ability to make people laugh.
Another user, Oluwademilade, stated that he enjoyed the app's video editing interface and features the most. He wasn't alone; Nnennaya expressed how much she enjoyed the app's numerous features.
According to Nnamdi, he enjoyed the way the app allowed him to use other people's sounds and music as if they were his.
Nigerians love video challenges
TikTok is well-known for the variety of video challenges it offers. The challenges, which are typically initiated by TikTokers or other social media influencers with a large following, have grown in popularity, particularly during this stay-at-home season.
Certain challenges, such as the #DontRushChallenge, the #BopDaddyChallenge, and the #FlipTheSwitchChallenge, have trended beyond the TikTok platform and onto other popular social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook.
Zoba, one of the surveyed users, expressed his particular fondness for the app's couple's game challenge. Damilare, another user, expressed his enjoyment of TikTok's video challenges.
However, another user, John, stated that he disliked everything about the app and that it eats up a lot of data.
TikTok in comparison to other social media platforms
On average, users spend 52 minutes per day on TikTok. In comparison to other social media platforms, users on Facebook spend more time (58.5 minutes per day) than users on TikTok.
In normal times, these figures would be excessive, especially given that the average person spends 38 minutes per day on Facebook, according to research. However, given that the lockdown has provided the majority of people with 24 hours of free time, this explains the spike.
However, users spend nearly as much time on TikTok (53 minutes) as they do on Instagram. 60% of TikTok users surveyed expressed a preference for other social media platforms. A sizable portion of the population prefers Twitter, while a small percentage prefers Snapchat.
In a nutshell, TikTok is not yet the most popular social media platform in Nigeria. However, if its popularity continues to grow, it will likely come close in the not-too-distant future.
TikTok’s Privacy Concerns
Last month, lawmakers in the United States charged TikTok with sharing user data with the Chinese government. ByteDance, a Chinese technology company, owns the platform.
A 2017 Chinese law requires businesses operating in the country to cooperate with the government on national intelligence.
Although ByteDance has denied the allegations and stated that user data is stored in the United States, several government agencies responsible for national security and intelligence have prohibited employees from using the app.
Steve Huffman, the CEO of Reddit, has also accused the video app of being a spyware that tracked users' actions. He continued by stating that the app was constantly listening and possessed a terrifying fingerprinting technology.
Increased scrutiny and raised red flags regarding TikTok's privacy practices have added to the doubts of many privacy-conscious users who would have used the app otherwise.
Finally, while TikTok's short videos help them gain popularity; other video apps such as Snapchat and Youtube have been around for a while and remain strong competitors in the video market.
While TikTok's business model clearly works for them, they must address the numerous privacy concerns surrounding the app if they wish to attract more privacy-conscious Nigerians to their platforms. Apart from the privacy concerns, the app is a lot of fun to play with.
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