Consulting Report | 12 Jan 2024
The TikTok Effect: The socioeconomic impact of TikTok in five European countries
TikTok plays host to a diverse nexus of people and businesses throughout Europe—operating within vibrant virtual communities. Businesses, and 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—of which there are more than 134 million in the EU—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. These interactions support economic value across several dimensions, which this report seeks to quantify.
SMEs that 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 €4.8bn to GDP in five European countries in 2023, while supporting 51,000 jobs.
This research report sets out our economic modelling in full, as well as the findings of survey research into SMEs on TikTok. This includes a discussion of the diversity of SME owners on TikTok.
In addition to the results of economic modelling and survey analysis, the report also presents a set of case studies showcasing examples of SMEs across all five countries which have experienced growth through using TikTok to market their businesses.
The experts behind the research
Our Economic Consulting and Thought Leadership teams are world leaders in quantitative economic analysis and original, evidence-based research, working with clients around the globe and across sectors to build models, forecast markets, run extensive surveys, and evaluate interventions using state-of-the art techniques. Lead consultants on this project were:
Chris Warner
Lead Economist, Economic Impact
Elliot Heaton
Economist, Economic Impact
Max Vickers
Research Associate, Thought Leadership
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