For many years, YouTube was the undisputed first choice for brands when it came to implementing their video strategies. And brands that wanted to make a name for themselves on social media invariably threw themselves into the arms of the Google subsidiary, whose advertising coffers were also eventually filled to the brim.

However, TikTok has managed to bring about a changing of the guard in the video segment. The social network from China has overtaken YouTube for the first time in terms of use among brands and retailers.

This is evident from a recent study by Digiday, which has been putting the spotlight on the strategies of brands and retailers with a focus on social media every summer since 2022. Looking at platforms specifically focused on video (YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat), the ByteDance subsidiary has managed to overtake YouTube for the first time, which brands have relegated to second place.

67% of the brands surveyed say they have posted content on TikTok in the last month. In the case of YouTube, this percentage drops to 60%, while Snapchat manages to attract the attention of just 13% of brands.

In the summer of 2023, YouTube (74%) led the Digiday ranking, followed by TikTok (63%) and Snapchat (19%). And a year earlier, in 2022, TikTok's gap over YouTube was even greater: 67% vs. 42%. Two years ago, the percentage of Snapchat usage among brands reached 12%.
TikTok's growth over the past two years has largely come at the expense of YouTube

Considering that Snapchat's market share has not seen any major fluctuations over the past two years, we can conclude that the changes in the ranking are mainly due to TikTok's growth and YouTube's decline.

Advertising investment by brands and retailers on TikTok has also been steadily increasing since 2022. Two years ago, only 24% of brands reported having invested in advertising on the Chinese-based network. In 2023, this proportion rose to 35%, and in 2024, 40% of brands are already betting on paid advertising on TikTok.

However, TikTok's growth between 2022 and 2022 was noticeably more conspicuous than in the period between 2023 and 2024. And this slowdown in growth is probably due to the social network's problems in the United States, where TikTok could disappear from the app stores if it does not make the sale of its American subsidiary effective.

However, and despite the threat looming over TikTok, users and also brands continue to use this platform extensively. However, brands do not expect to significantly increase the resources invested in TikTok as a result of the uncertainty currently hovering around the future of this platform. And this could ultimately benefit YouTube in the medium and long term.

The weakening of YouTube would, for its part, be related to the very nature of this platform, which is much older and does not attract an audience as young and as active as TikTok. Problems with brand safety, the increased use of ad blockers, the increasingly short attention span of Generation Z, and the unpredictability of the platform's own algorithm are also said to be influencing YouTube's loss of popularity.

https://www.marketingdirecto.com/digital-general/social-media-marketing/tiktok-destrona-a-youtube-rey-video-redes-sociales