TikTok is still Americans teenagers’ favorite social media platform, but it has failed to add to the lead it was expanding over other major social platforms. So finds Piper Sandler in the latest edition of its semi-annual Taking Stock with Teens survey.
The survey asked 5,690 teens (with an average age of 16.2 years) to identify their favorite social media platform. The largest share cited TikTok, at 37%, but this was down a point from the previous survey, and represents the first time that TikTok’s share has dipped since its introduction to the survey in Spring 2020.
Snapchat, the last leader prior to TikTok’s ascendance, remains the second-most preferred platform, but it continues to gradually cede share. In this latest edition of the report it was the favorite for 28% of respondents, down from 30% in the previous edition and 31% in the one prior. The platform has faced some struggles, with marketers planning to cut spend, and its brand value down considerably.
Instead, it was Instagram picking up the slack. Almost one-quarter (23%) of teens surveyed name it their favorite social media platform, up from 20% in the prior survey, and arresting a slide that began in 2020. Marketers are also touting Instagram as a high ROI channel and one that offers them potential to grow their audiences this year.
While these major social media platforms tend to find higher adoption among female than male youth, the opposite is true for YouTube. Though not counted as a social media platform for the purposes of Piper Sandler’s survey, YouTube is measured as a video source. In this latest survey, YouTube lost a little ground to Netflix in their competitive race for teens’ video viewing time. Teens estimated spending 31% of their daily video consumption with Netflix, up from 30% in the year-earlier survey (Spring 2022), while estimating spending 28% share of their video time with YouTube, down from 30% in the year-earlier report.
In other highlights from Piper Sandler’s study:
- About two-thirds (68%) of teens report having used Spotify for streaming services over the previous 6 months, with 44% subscribing/paying for these services.
- Some 87% own an iPhone, while 88% expect an iPhone to be their next phone.
- Slightly more than one-third (35%) own an Apple Watch.
- While 14% of teens use virtual reality weekly, only 4% do so daily.
- Using the phone is teens’ preferred method of customer service interaction, while text/SMS had the biggest gain.
- The top wallet priority for male teens was Food (24% share of wallet), while Clothing topped the list for females (28% share).
- Male teens dedicate 12% of their wallets to video games, and about one-third (32%) expect to buy a NextGen console within the next 2 years.
