More than one-fifth of Taiwanese adults used TikTok or Douyin (抖音) — the Chinese version of TikTok — at least once during a three-month period last year, a report released by the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) showed.
Last year’s “Taiwan Internet Report” prepared by the ministry’s Taiwan Network Information Center found that 21.67 percent of Taiwanese used the Chinese social media platforms from March to June, with 44.45 percent of them engaging with the apps daily.
However, the annual report also showed that the ByteDance-owned platforms were far less popular among Taiwanese users than market leaders Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta.
Photo: Reuters
According to the survey data collected from June 19 to June 29 last year, 44.44 percent of the respondents said Facebook was the social media platform they used most often, while 21.12 percent preferred Instagram.
TikTok and Douyin ranked third, with 2.53 percent of respondents saying they used the ByteDance-owned platforms more than others.
Tao Chen-chao (陶振超), a member of the survey’s research team and a professor in National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University’s Department of Communication, said the data collected last year showed social media users were continuing to migrate across platforms.
The “information circulation market” was becoming more fragmented, as Facebook’s popularity declined and users were drawn to other, more niche social media platforms such as Threads, Tao said.
Although the survey was comprehensive, the usage rate for TikTok and Douyin might have been underestimated in the findings, he said.
Respondents might have underreported their engagement with the Beijing-based platforms, as they might have had reservations about telling the researchers that they used platforms that were seen as “tools used by China for propaganda,” he said.
The survey targeted people aged 18 or older.
According to the 298-page report, younger people used TikTok and Douyin more than older people.
In the 18-29 age group, the ByteDance platforms saw the highest usage rate at 34.37 percent. Usage declined progressively in older age groups, at 27.77 percent in the 30-39 range, 23.37 percent in the 40-49 range, 20.19 percent in the 50-59 range and 14.85 percent in the 60-69 range.
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