Data Point: 98% of videos on TikTok come from the most active 25% of users.

From The Source:

According to Pew Research, “[a] relatively small share of users produce most of TikTok’s content. About half of U.S. adult TikTok users (52%) have ever posted a video on the platform. In fact, of all the TikTok content posted by American adults, 98% of publicly accessible videos come from the most active 25% of users. Those who have posted TikTok content are more active on the site overall. These users follow more accounts, have more followers, and are more likely to have filled out an account bio.”

6 facts about Americans and TikTok, by Kirsten Eddy — Pew Research Center

Analysis: Have you ever heard the saying, “Twitter isn’t real life?” You can probably say the same about what you see on TikTok, given the concentration of high-visibility content among a small percentage of accounts and the concentration of views among a vanishingly small number of videos. I pulled down a sample of 3,196 posts on health-related topics and found that 50% of views in this sample came from only 17% of videos published.

But if anything, this overstates the average impact of a TikTok video: an analysis I did on one health publisher active on TikTok showed that just 1% of videos were responsible for 92% of views and on-post engagements on their account. This leaves most account content undiscovered and not contributing to business goals.

Up For Debate: Given how skewed individual post performance is on TikTok, does most content posted to the platform add meaningful value for brands and publishers? Of course, there’s an argument that high volume is necessary to ensure you get the viral hits, but these numbers may make publishers think twice.

And what effect does this concentration have on audience sentiment toward the topics they engage with? Shrinking the number of perspectives truly influential on a given topic isn’t positive – especially if you find yourself on the wrong side of the divide.