Minister challenges TikTok in South Africa

Communications minister Solly Malatsi has told TikTok that it should expand its Creator Fund to South Africa, which would allow local creators on the platform to earn an income from their videos.

“South Africa has over 17 million TikTok users and trendsetters shaping global culture, making it the ideal place to expand TikTok’s Creator Fund in Africa,” Malatsi said.

Malatsi said he had constructive engagements with TikTok leadership at their Safer Internet Summit, where he made his position clear:

“South African creators deserve full access to monetisation offerings on the platform. TikTok has committed to taking this feedback on board and our engagements will continue,” said Malatsi.

“Let’s recognise our creators. Let’s reward their impact adequately.”

TikTok has seen meteoric growth in South Africa. Brand intelligence consultancy Ornico and market research house World Wide Worx revealed in their 2023 South African Social Media Landscape study that TikTok had seized second place in the market from Instagram that year.

“The youth audience is key to social media in South Africa,” World Wide Worx CEO Arthur Goldstuck said at the time.

“When a platform like TikTok, which has deep reach among those aged under 15, breaks through to this extent in the older youth market, as well as among young adults, we can see the landscape undergoing a significant shift.”

In their 2024 social media landscape study, Ornico and World Wide Worx reported that TikTok’s relentless rise continued, with major brands adopting the platform in South Africa.

“Bear in mind it didn’t exist before 2020 among major brands in this country. In that year, 1% of brands were using it,” the study said.

“When we asked companies which platforms they intended to use in the coming year, TikTok came in at number one, with 32% of brands saying that they plan to use it.”

Their industry survey also showed that TikTok’s use increased from 28% of brands saying they were active on the platform in 2023, to 33% in 2024.

“In 2023, 16.1% of users accessed TikTok today or yesterday, an increase from 13.8% in 2022,” Goldtsuck said in their latest report.

“This rise indicates that daily engagement on TikTok has grown. For those who accessed TikTok in the last 7 days, the percentage increased from 6.7% in 2022 to 8.9% in 2023. This suggests a higher weekly engagement among users.”

Goldstuck said users who accessed TikTok in the last 14 days also saw an increase, rising from 4.2% in 2022 to 5.3% in 2023, indicating that bi-weekly engagement is also on the rise.

“The percentage of users who accessed TikTok in the last month increased slightly from 3% in 2022 to 3.7% in 2023, showing a moderate growth in monthly engagement,” he said.

“Finally, those who accessed TikTok more than a month ago saw a slight increase from 2.8% in 2022 to 3.4% in 2023. This indicates that the number of infrequent users has also grown somewhat.”

Overall, Goldstuck said the data shows that TikTok has seen increased engagement across all categories in South Africa, with the most significant growth in daily and weekly usage.

“This suggests that TikTok is becoming more integral to users’ daily routines and maintains consistent engagement over longer periods.”

Despite the surge in TikTok’s popularity, their industry survey found that brands only allocated 3% of their advertising budgets to TikTok.

Facebook and LinkedIn accounted for 28% and 24% of brands’ social media advertising budgets, respectively, while Instagram received 11% of the spend.