TikTok says it has one billion monthly users

Popular video-sharing app TikTok has hit 1 billion monthly active users around the world, the company said Monday. 

“TikTok has become a beloved part of life for people around the world because of the creativity and authenticity of our creators. Our global community is remarkable in its ability to reach millions of people, across generations,” the company said in an announcement. 

The short-form video app has risen sharply in popularity in the last few years, spawning competing products from other platforms. 

Facebook-owned Instagram launched its Reels features, YouTube has created Shorts, and Snapchat released Spotlight — each offering a similar feature to TikTok allowing users to create short videos. 

TikTok still trails Facebook in monthly active users. The tech giant had 3.51 billion monthly active users across its family of apps as of June 30, according to the company’s most recent report to investors. On Facebook alone, the company reported 2.9 billion monthly active users. 

As TikTok has increased in popularity, it has also drawn government scrutiny. 

During the Trump administration, the Chinese-owned app faced threats of being banned in the U.S. by the former president, but the executive orders never took effect, and President Biden replaced them in June with executive orders of his own that instead directed an “evidence-based” analysis of risks posed by TikTok and other apps.