The number of users of the video-sharing app “TikTok”, which originated in China, has increased significantly in Japan, mainly among young people, and has grown the most among major social media (SNS). In the United States, there is a growing movement to ban it due to security concerns, but in Japan, it has only been banned from use on government terminals, and no new regulations have been moved.
NTT Docomo Mobile Social Research Institute announced on the 22nd. According to the survey, the TikTok usage rate among smartphone owners was 18%. This was an increase of 8 points from the previous year. The growth was particularly noticeable among teenagers. The growth rate of other major SNS was limited, with the largest one, Instagram, only increasing by 2.2 points. In January of this year, we surveyed 6,440 men and women between the ages of 15 and 79 to find out their usage rate at least once a month.
On the 23rd, the U.S. Senate followed the House’s lead in passing a bill that would ban TikTok’s parent company ByteDance from using the app unless it sells its U.S. business. Approved. Due to concerns that users’ data could be collected and used by the Chinese government, they are pressing for separation from Chinese capital or a ban on use. Even if the use of the app expands further in Japan in the future, market participants predict that it will not lead to a similar trend in the United States as there is little reason to restrict it.
Tohide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute, said that the U.S. bill is a move to exclude foreign capital without showing clear evidence that it poses a security threat, and that it has the aspect of performance in the run-up to the presidential election. It was predicted that it would be unlikely that the government would force them to take a similar response. He said that even if forced to do so, it would be extremely difficult to exclude individual companies on the grounds of national security.
Yoshiki Shigeeda of Gaiax, a social media marketing company, points out that the domestic reaction to the U.S. Congress’ passage of a ban bill has been “sluggish,” but says that with TikTok’s rapidly growing popularity, companies are continuing to promote it. explained.
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Tags: Japans TikToK usage rate increased significantly largest increase year major SNS Bloomberg
