KYM Insights: How TikTok Stacks Up Against Other Video Meme Platforms In 2020

No other social media platform has been quite as widely discussed this year as much as TikTok has. From its notable rise in popularity to controversies and Chinese connections that even saw President Donald Trump considering a total ban on TikTok, the video-oriented app has had a remarkable yet contentious year.

Launched in 2016, TikTok has grown to over 800 million active users worldwide, according to digital insights company DataReportal, who published a study in September. As it sits, TikTok now ranks ninth overall in terms of social media sites, beating out longstanding platforms like Pinterest and even Twitter.

Despite its meteoric rise, particularly among Gen Z, the app has largely been either a “love it” or “hate it” kind of reaction from users online, giving life to memes such as Reddit Good, TikTok Bad. TikTok has undoubtedly pushed the video meme world into new directions this year, but not everyone is a fan.

To gain some understanding into how users feel about TikTok, KYM Insights conducted a series of polls through CivicScience over the last month to understand how TikTok and its unique brand of memes are viewed online. Of the thousands of respondents we received between November and December, here’s what we discovered.

TikTok Usage In 2020

Firstly, we asked participants if they were using TikTok more in December than they were at the beginning of 2020. With over 4,300 responses, our poll showed that the vast majority of users at nearly three-fourths didn’t use the app at all. At 11.3 percent, the next highest tier said they used it more. Only 8.2 percent of respondents said they used it less, and roughly 7 percent said about the same.

When asked a similar question but about participants’ friends, we learned that nearly half (46.6 percent) said their friends didn’t use the app, but over a quarter at 28.3 percent said they used it more. Rounding out the bottom again, 17 percent used it the same, while just 8.1 percent used it more last year.

Aside from sheer usage, we also polled participants on how they generally perceived TikTok memes and how they stacked up against other sites for video-meme content. Let’s take a look at this below.

How TikTok Stacks Up Against Other Video-meme Sites and Platforms

At just shy of 14,000 total responses, this question was easily the most popular for users to weigh in on. Claiming the biggest piece of the pie (chart), participants said YouTube was the best site for video memes overall at 37.9 percent. The second-highest site with a quarter of the total was Reddit, with “other” coming in at third just over 12 percent. TikTok wound up in fourth here overall, with 11.6 percent claiming it was the best for video memes, just ahead of Instagram and FunnyJunk.

TikTok Memes, Good or Bad?

Building off the previous question, we then asked respondents if they felt TikTok memes were better, worse or the same compared to memes on other platforms. Given the trend so far, it’s no surprise that over half of the participants answered “worse” at 62.8 percent total. The second-highest percentage at 28.3 percent responded that they were about the same as other meme sites, but only a mere 8.8 said they were “better” than competitors.

Despite the fact that our poll only represents a minor fraction of the massive number of users around the world, results are still interesting and show that those who participated largely had negative emotions about TikTok and its memes. YouTube has arguably been the king of video memes for many years now, with honorable mention going to Vine, so it isn’t a shock to see it garner such admiration from respondents.

Additionally, though TikTok has had a record-breaking year in terms of growth, much of the news covering the app this year discussed several negative aspects (such as data collection from a foreign government) that certainly didn’t paint it in a good light. We’re willing to bet this played a role in polarizing users — potentially scaring off any newcomers or further entrenching those who already liked or disliked it.

As a final, more one-off question, we also asked our participants if they’d rather be “YouTube famous” or “TikTok famous.” With over 10,000 responses, a whopping 92 percent said they would much rather be a famous YouTuber than a TikToker. That being said, it seems like YouTube is still the top dog when it comes to video memes, but with TikTok continuing to rise around the globe, we’ll see if these numbers don’t shift in the future.