On February 17, when TikTok beat out Google as the domain with the most visitors in the world, it was a first. The Chinese video-sharing social media platform did not hold that rank for long, and Google returned to the number one position. But after August, TikTok returned to the top of the world, and Google never quite managed to catch up. The result?
In 2021, the most-visited domain in the world was TikTok, not Google, according to Cloudflare’s annual report.
This, despite the platform’s ban in India, which was until mid-2020 its largest overseas market.
When Google.com (which includes Maps, Translate, Photos, Flights, Books, and News, among others) was the undefeated top domain in 2020, TikTok.com was ranked between #7 and $8. 2021, however, saw the platform charge to the first place, beating out Facebook for the #2 slot and finally, Google, for the #1 position.
These are the most popular domains in the world in 2021, according to Cloudflare:
1. TikTok.com
2. Google.com
3. Facebook.com
4. Microsoft.com
5. Apple.com
6. Amazon.com
7. Netflix.com
8. YouTube.com
9. Twitter.com
10. WhatsApp.com
For social media domains, here is the list:
Top 10 — Most popular social media domains (late) 2021
1 TikTok.com
2 Facebook.com
3 YouTube.com
4 Twitter.com
5 Instagram.com
6 Snapchat.com
7 Reddit.com
8 Pinterest.com
9 LinkedIn.com
10 Quora.com
“Facebook.com was steadily number #2 across 2020, but with TikTok.com going up Facebook is now a solid #3, followed by Microsoft.com (Office365 and Teams numbers are included there) and by Apple.com (App Store and Apple TV+ numbers are included), the same trend as in 2020,” the report says.
“Amazon.com is the juggernaut that follows, but it is interesting to see that since January 2021 the e-commerce website (we will talk more about that category in a few paragraphs) jumped in front of Apple.com. But Apple got back in front, after September, with some exceptions like November 28, 2021, the day before Cyber Monday — and also December 1 and 6.”
Insider Intelligence recently forecast TikTok to become the world’s third-largest social network in 2022. TikTok is projected to reach 755 million monthly yusers in 2022, after 59.8 per cent growth in 2020 and 40.8 per cent growth in 2021.
Facebook, the market leader, had 2.91 billion monthly active users, but grew just six per cent year-over-year (due to its size).
