This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
By one important metric, TikTok didn’t grow in the final quarter of 2023. In the US, it actually saw a turnaround.
This is shocking for an app that has experienced racial expansion since Chinese tech giant ByteDance launched it in 2016.
The question is: why? Some people may delete the app. More likely: There are simply no hours left in the day for people to watch Moreover TikTok videos. This is especially true for young users who are entering a challenging new period of life known as adulthood.
Here is the data. This graph is probably much more concerning for the company than any possible US ban.
TikTok’s growth rate slows
These numbers represent growth rates in average daily users, or DAU, for some of the most popular social media services globally. This is taken from a quarterly review conducted by Evercore ISI analysts drawing on Sensor Tower data.
After demolishing the competition from 2020 through the first half of 2022, TikTok’s DAU growth rate plummeted. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the video service lagged behind Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Yes, you read that right: The big old blue app has grown faster than TikTok.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
What is going on?
One interesting theory is that TikTok users are growing up and taking on new responsibilities that leave less time for watching videos.
When the app was launched, it took the world by storm. Children and teenagers were particularly attracted to the unique content and culture suited to the creators of the service.
Let’s say these users were around 13 years old when they first downloaded the app in 2016 and 2017. Now, these people are at least 20 years old. They have a full-time job or are studying in college. For many, parents no longer do their laundry, cook their meals, or transport them to and from sports games, meetings, and other commitments.
For readers who haven’t experienced it yet, it’s called “life.” This stuff takes up a lot of extra time, which leaves less for TikTok.
This also emerges from the data. Average monthly U.S. TikTok users aged 18 to 24 fell nearly 9% from 2022 to 2023, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, citing analytics firm Data.ai.
“Time spent” was the part of TikTok’s business that really caught investors’ attention. According to eMarketer estimates, in 2024 US adults will spend about an hour a day on TikTok, more than on YouTube.
More time = more chance to show ads to people and do other things that make money. If some of TikTok’s core users can no longer afford to spend an hour a day on the app, that’s not good for business.
Remember Brielle?
This gives me a new appreciation for the honesty of a TikToker named Brielle, who was unfairly criticized last year for complaining about her new corporate job.
After landing her first office role out of college, she posted a video describing how little time she had left each day for her personal life and basic chores. Older viewers harshly criticized Brielle for being naive and for a number of other alleged failures.
What I now understand is that Brielle was probably just a big TikTok user who had recently grown up and realized she didn’t have as much time for the app anymore.
Deleting TikTok
I’ve seen it in my life. My two sons have been huge fans of TikTok for years.
The oldest is now a sophomore in college studying mechanical engineering. She rents a house with her friends. There’s a huge study load, on top of cleaning the house, cooking, washing dishes, emptying the trash, paying bills and yes, parties.
A couple of months ago he decided to delete TikTok from his phone. Right now she’s having a competition at her house to see who can limit their screen time the most.
A year ago, this daughter watched at least two hours of TikTok a day. I had given up trying to limit it. She is an adult and I no longer have any influence. Yet, she recently realized on her own that she couldn’t adapt to all her new obligations and continue watching TikTok for hours every day.
My youngest daughter lives at home and is still in high school, so her daily TikTok consumption is still massive. She’ll be leaving for college in the fall, so she’ll eventually face a similar dilemma with her time.
This isn’t just me
The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed some TikTok users in their 20s. They tell a similar story: They began to notice that TikTok, in particular, was hindering their sleep, work, household chores, and relationships.
They also said many of their friends have deleted the app or reduced their use in recent months.
Keilah Bruce, a 27-year-old accountant, told the Journal she stopped using TikTok last year.
“Now I’m comfortable with my friends, my family, my dishes and my laundry,” she said. “I don’t want to sacrifice those things anymore.”
“TikTok offers several tools, from personalized screen time limits to sleep reminders, that are used by millions of people to help them make intentional decisions about how they spend their time,” a spokesperson for TikTok, adding that the app regularly remembers people with these characteristics.