TikTok reveals detailed user numbers for the first time

TikTok revealed specific U.S. and global monthly active user details for the first time in its lawsuit challenging the U.S. government over an effective ban that is set to take place next month.

In the filing, TikTok revealed its monthly active users have grown nearly 800% since Jan. 2018, when the application was used by about 11 million Americans. About a year later, that figure had more than doubled to about 27 million. By June 2020, months into pandemic quarantines, TikTok’s total number of U.S. month active users had soared to more than 91 million. More than 100 million Americans are monthly active users today, the company said earlier this month. The company also revealed it has more than 50 million daily U.S. users.

Here’s the breakdown of TikTok’s U.S. user growth:

• January 2018: 11,262,970 U.S. monthly active users (MAUs)
• February 2019: 26,739,143 
• October 2019: 39,897,768
• June 2020: 91,937,040
• August 2020: More than 100 million based on quarterly usage

Globally, TikTok has experienced similar surges in users. The company said it had about 55 million global users by Jan. 2018. That number ballooned to more than 271 million by Dec. 2018 and 507 million by Dec. 2019. This month, TikTok surpassed 2 billion global downloads and reported nearly 700 million monthly active users in July. 

Here’s the breakdown of TikTok’s global user growth

• January 2018: 54,793,729 global MAUs
• December 2018: 271,188,301
• December 2019: 507,552,660
• July 2020: 689,174,209

TikTok is fighting an effective ban in the U.S. after the Trump administration deemed its data storage and security a national security risk because the company’s parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. TikTok said in a lawsuit against the U.S. government filed Monday that the U.S. has no evidence that the company is sharing data with the Chinese government and has prohibited TikTok from due process. 

TikTok still trails Facebook, which has about 2.7 billion global monthly active users, based on its second-quarter company filing.