For another year in a row, TikTok is the social app kids and teens spend the most time during the day, even outpacing YouTube. As of June 2020, according to an ongoing annual review of children’s and teens’ app use and behavior worldwide, the younger demographic — minors ages 4 to 18 — began watching more TikTok than YouTube on average as of June 2020, and TikTok’s has since number continue to grow.
In June 2020, TikTok overtook YouTube for the first time, with kids watching an average of 82 minutes a day on TikTok versus an average of 75 minutes a day on YouTube, according to new data from parental control software maker Qustodio.
Over the past year, the gap between the two widened, it said, as children saw their average daily use of TikTok rise to a whopping 107 minutes by 2022, or 60% longer than the time they spent watching video content on YouTube (67 minutes). .
Not only did TikTok surpass the average daily usage of other video apps, such as Netflix (48 mins) and Disney+ (40 mins), it also topped other social apps, including Snapchat (72 mins), Instagram (45 mins . .), Facebook (20 min.), Pinterest (16 min.) and Twitter (10 min.) among young people under the age of 18.
Image Credits: Qustodio
Meanwhile, as the US grapples with TikTok bans on college campuses and in government, the app’s addictive video content was viewed an average of 113 minutes per day in this market, compared to 77 minutes per day on YouTube, 52 minutes for Netflix. 90 minutes on Snapchat and 20 minutes on Pinterest.
However, there is still good news for YouTube. The research found that the average daily time spent on YouTube has increased by 20% year-on-year to 67 minutes – the highest number since Qustodio began reporting annual trends in 2019. YouTube also gained significant global market share and mind share last year, as 63% of kids around the world used the service by 2022. The report also broke down a few top markets in more detail, noting that 60% of U.S. kids are watching YouTube, compared to 67% in the UK, 73% in Spain and 58% in Australia. The second most popular video service was Netflix, with a 39% popularity among children worldwide.
Overall, children under the age of 18 managed to increase video content viewership by 18% by 2022, spending an average of 45 minutes per day watching long video services such as YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, Prime Videos and others.
Other winners of the year included Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which gained 7% and 10% popularity respectively, meaning they were used by these under-18s at one point or another. But in terms of average daily minutes spent, Prime Video was down 15% year over year to 34 minutes. Disney+ fell by the same percentage, from an average of 47 minutes per day to 40 minutes in 2022. Twitch also suffered last year with only 11% of under-18s, compared to 16% in 2021.
Image Credits: Qustodio
TikTok’s growth among the younger demographic has forced Big Tech giants to combat the threat with their own short video. YouTube Shorts is YouTube’s solution to the problem. Google reported this month that Shorts passed 50 billion daily views. Instagram, of course, crammed Reels into its experience — and received some backlash over the changes. Instagram head Adam Mosseri even admitted earlier this year that the platform has pushed “too many videos” on users.
It’s not clear that this shoehorn from Reels on Instagram has paid off with the younger crowd. In Qustodio’s analysis, the app fell out of the top five most popular social media apps in the US, UK and Australia with users under the age of 18. However, it was still number 5 globally, behind TikTok, Facebook (38% of kids used it worldwide!), Snapchat and Pinterest.
While the software company chose to analyze Roblox alongside other video games, it’s also worth noting that the game is something of a social network – and an extremely popular destination among kids around the world. The gaming platform was popular with 59% of children worldwide, and average daily time spent grew 4% year-over-year to 180 minutes. That’s bigger than any other game, including the No. 2 game, Minecraft (up 37% to 48 mins), Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, Clash of Clans, and What Would You Choose?
Image Credits: Qustodio
Qustodio’s full report also touches on other app trends, including Twitter’s global popularity growth of 7%, which also led to its first appearance on the list of most blocked apps by parents in 2022. It also dug into educational app usage, with Google Classroom reigning on school devices and Duolingo remaining a top app on personal devices. And it looked at communications, where WhatsApp and Discord displaced Messages as the most popular way to chat with friends, though Zoom saw more minutes on a daily basis.
While the report’s data is limited to app usage that Qustodio tracks on its own platform, it’s a significant group that includes more than 400,000 global families with children in the Gen Z and/or Gen Alpha demographics. It also directly asked 1,617 parents how they manage their children’s access to technology.