Almost half of US TikTok users have yet to use a main feature of app

TikTok has gained widespread popularity in recent years, but clearly, users prefer watching content rather than posting themselves, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.

It turns out that nearly half of US adults (48 per cent) on the platform have never posted a video.

The "How U.S. Adults Use TikTok" analysis involved a survey that was conducted in August 2023 of 2,745 U.S. adult TikTok users as well as observing the TikTok accounts and posting behaviours of 879 US adults who volunteered to share their accounts as part of the research.

This study found that a minority of adult users are responsible for producing the vast majority of content on TikTok.

So although it may feel like there is an abundance of content creators on your For You page, in reality, it's a small number since the top 25 per cent of U.S. adults on TikTok are posting 98 per cent of all public videos on the platform.

In the research, it is noted that there are "modest differences in the posting behavior of users based on their demographic characteristics."

For instance, younger audiences are more likely to use TikTok with half of users in this age group (18 to 34) having never posted on the site - this reflects a wider pattern seen in all age groups as this is a similar case for those aged 35 to 49.

New Pew Research Center analysis has looked into how US adults behave on TikTokPew Research Center

When it comes to the For You page - the personalized feed of videos based on the user's interests and engagement - most (85 per cent) of the survey respondents said their FYP is at least somewhat interesting, including 40 per cent who call it either extremely or very interesting.

Just a small minority (14 per cent) said that their FYP is not too or not at all interesting.

"Despite the fact that more and more Americans are using TikTok, we found that nearly half of U.S. adult users never upload videos, and the most active 25% are responsible for a massive 98% of public content," said Computational Social Scientist Sam Bestvater.

"It's a reminder that most of what we see on TikTok was created by a small segment of the user base, and it might not reflect the average user's experience."

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.