Tiktok Recovers From Dip In Usage That Benefited Rival Apps Following U.s. Ownership Change

TikTok has mostly recovered from a flimsy dip successful progressive users successful nan days pursuing its ownership change, erstwhile a group of American investors took power of nan video app’s operations successful nan United States. The decline, though brief, benefited competing video apps for illustration UpScrolled and Skylight Social, which saw accelerated personification take arsenic immoderate looked for TikTok alternatives.

According to estimates from integer marketplace intelligence patient Similarweb, TikTok saw usage dip into nan scope of 86-88 cardinal regular progressive users successful nan U.S. instantly aft nan ownership change. That compares pinch a emblematic mean of 92 cardinal regular progressive users.

The app has bounced backmost to much than 90 cardinal regular progressive users, indicating that galore who near TikTok person since returned.

AsTikTok saw a mini dip successful usage, replacement video-sharing apps, UpScrolled and Skylight Social, began increasing quickly. Although only a mini fraction of TikTok’s size, UpScrolled topped 138,500 regular progressive users astatine its highest connected January 28; it has now dropped backmost down to 68,000.

Meanwhile, Skylight Social deed 81,200 regular progressive users, according to Similarweb’s estimates and has since dropped to 56,300 regular progressive users. Overall, Skylight Social saw its personification sign-ups summation to 380,000 arsenic of precocious January, nan institution told TechCrunch.

Image Credits:Similarweb

TikTok’s usage decline, which prompted immoderate to effort nan caller apps, wasn’t driven by nan ownership alteration directly, but alternatively by really users feared it would effect their TikTok experience. There were increasing concerns astir TikTok’s updated privateness policy, which gave nan app support to way users’ precise GPS location. (This summation could beryllium related to TikTok’s tests of a “Nearby” feed to show users videos from section creators, but was added to nan argumentation alongside nan alteration successful ownership, starring to personification backlash complete privateness concerns.)

When reference nan privateness argumentation anew, immoderate users besides discovered disturbing language, for illustration really TikTok said it whitethorn cod users’ “immigration status,” among different individual data. However, this turned retired to beryllium a reference that was included because of nan California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which requires businesses to pass consumers if they cod definite delicate data. TikTok does that — successful nan consciousness that thing personification shares connected nan level successful their video contented technically becomes portion of nan platform, truthful it requires disclosure.

In addition, TikTok knowledgeable an unluckily timed, multi-day information halfway outage, which caused nan app to not usability properly, sometimes breaking search, likes, and comments, causing video glitches, disrupting nan algorithm, and creating issues pinch nan in-app chat. Users believed these glitches meant TikTok was now censoring their content, which sent them looking for alternatives.

The institution announced connected Sunday evening that nan data halfway outage was resolved, chalking it up to a winter-storm-driven powerfulness outage.

As users made bid pinch nan caller position and conditions and nan outage-driven issues were resolved, users returned to nan platform, Similarweb’s information shows. But there’s still dream for nan newcomers, arsenic nan patient notes that TikTok’s usage has been slow declining complete nan second portion of 2025, erstwhile usage peaked astatine 100 cardinal regular progressive users from July to October 2025, compared pinch nan 90+ cardinal seen now.