TikTok is growing rapidly in the Middle East, with the number of followers of top influencers increasing by 120% year-on-year

According to a report by analytics and technology consulting firm Anavizio, TikTok is growing rapidly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries , with the total cumulative followers of TikTok's top 10 influencers in the region growing from 24.6 million at the beginning of 2020 to 54.6 million today, a year-on-year increase of 120%.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Middle East is referred to as the "GCC" , which covers six countries in the Persian Gulf region , namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates .

Fares Ghneim, partner at Anavizio, told Arab News : “We have observed rapid growth of TikTok in the GCC over the past year , and the platform’s popularity continues to rise . The controversy surrounding TikTok in the United States and other places in the summer and fall of 2020 has not affected TikTok ’s development in the GCC in any way , and we have also seen some brands start to join the platform, which is something we will be watching closely in the coming months . ”

It is reported that more than 60,000 companies in the Middle East and North Africa have registered for TikTok to promote their products and brands on the platform, and TikTok also launched an Arabic version in November last year, which is more popular among companies in the region.

Arab News also reported that although there are many popular influencers on TikTok , some influencers are still on the rise , which has promoted the formation of a dynamic scene of influence on the platform ↓

In addition , the fastest growing TikTok followers are in Oman and Qatar , where the top three influencers in these two countries have seen a 674% and 658% increase in followers respectively ↓

Finally, the top 10 influencers in the GCC region post between 2 and 24 videos per week and receive an average of 350 views ↓

However, although TikTok is growing rapidly in the GCC region , it has not yet reached the development level of other mature social media platforms .

“ The top influencer in the region on Instagram might have 30-40 million followers and have multiple partnership deals with brands ,” Ghneim said. “ The top TikTok influencer in the GCC has only 9 million followers. ”

But he is also optimistic: " If TikTok continues to grow at its current pace in the GCC region , this gap will narrow in the next few years. "

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