Usage Falls After Ownership Change Then Recovers
TikTok has largely recovered from a short decline in daily active users in the United States that followed a change in ownership, when a group of American investors took control of the app’s US operations.
Data from digital market intelligence firm Similarweb shows that TikTok’s daily active users in the US fell into a range of 86 million to 88 million immediately after the ownership change, compared with a typical average of about 92 million. The app has since returned to more than 90 million daily active users, indicating that many users who left during the dip have come back.
Rivals See Spikes That Later Fade
As TikTok’s usage dipped, alternative video apps UpScrolled and Skylight Social recorded rapid growth, though both remain far smaller than TikTok.
UpScrolled reached a peak of 138,500 daily active users on January 28 before falling back to 68,000. Skylight Social climbed to 81,200 daily active users and later dropped to 56,300, according to Similarweb’s estimates. The company behind Skylight Social told TechCrunch that total user sign-ups rose to 380,000 by late January.
Privacy Policy Changes And User Concerns
The decline in TikTok usage was not driven directly by the ownership change, but by concerns over how it might affect the user experience. One factor was backlash to an updated privacy policy that allows the app to track users’ precise GPS location. The change may be linked to tests of a “Nearby” feed that shows videos from local creators, but it appeared alongside the ownership change and prompted privacy concerns.
Some users also noticed language in the policy stating that TikTok may collect data such as “immigration status.” This reference is included because the California Consumer Privacy Act requires companies to disclose if they collect certain categories of sensitive data. TikTok does so in the sense that information shared in user videos becomes part of the platform and must be covered by the disclosure.
Outage Fuels Perception Of Platform Issues
At the same time, TikTok experienced a multi-day data center outage that affected how the app worked. Users reported problems with search, likes, and comments, as well as video glitches, disruptions to the algorithm, and issues with in-app chat.
Some users believed the problems meant TikTok was censoring their content, which pushed them to try other apps. The company said on Sunday evening that the outage had been resolved and said it was caused by a winter-storm-related power failure.
Return Of Users And Broader Trend
As users adjusted to the updated terms and the outage-related issues were fixed, Similarweb’s data shows that many returned to TikTok. The firm also noted that TikTok’s usage has been slowly declining over the latter part of 2025. During that period, daily active users peaked at about 100 million from July to October 2025, compared with just over 90 million now.
Featured image credits: Plann
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