Recent Release | 18 Jul 2023

The TikTok Effect: The socio-economic impact of TikTok in the UK

Economic Consulting and Thought Leadership Teams

Oxford Economics

TikTok plays host to a diverse nexus of people, creators, and businesses—all operating within vibrant virtual communities. Businesses, particularly SMEs, are well placed to benefit from TikTok’s content algorithm which helps users to discover lesser-known brands according to their tastes. Users are able to find out about new products and services, as well as places to visit in their local area, in turn impacting on real world communities as well. These interactions support economic value across several dimensions, which this report seeks to quantify.

SMEs which use TikTok themselves stand to realise growth and take on new employees in the process, which in turn stimulates economic activity in their supply chains, and through employees spending in the wider economy. Via these channels, our economic modelling suggests that SME activity on TikTok contributed £1.6bn to UK GDP in 2022, whilst supporting 32,000 jobs.

This research report sets out our economic modelling in full, as well as the findings of survey research into TikTok’s users and SMEs. It looks at the real world impacts users report, the value that users place on TikTok, as well as the diversity of TikTok’s online communities.

In addition to the results of economic modelling and survey analysis, the report also presents a set of case studies showcasing examples of SMEs which have experienced growth through using TikTok to market their businesses.

Read the Report

The expert behind the research

Chris and Henry, members of the Economic Impact team, bring years of experience in quantitative economic analysis working with clients around the globe and across sectors to build models, forecast markets and evaluate interventions using state-of-the art techniques. This project includes assistance from our Thought Leadership team.