Indonesia Ranks Among Top TikTok Users for News in 2024

The Reuters Institute's *Digital News Report 2024* compiled data from at least the top 10 countries using TikTok as a social media platform for news consumption.

Thailand ranked first, with 39% of respondents reporting using the ByteDance app to read news within a week. Kenya followed in second place with 36%, and Malaysia in third with 31%.

Indonesia ranked fourth at 29%, followed by South Africa at 28%. The remaining countries, from Peru to Colombia, are shown in the graph.

The research team noted that the proportion of these 10 developing countries far exceeded that of developed nations, with the UK at only 4%, Denmark at 3%, and the United States at 9%.

"TikTok's future remains uncertain in the US following concerns about Chinese influence and it has been banned in India, although similar apps, such as Moj, Chingari, and Josh, have emerged there," wrote the research team, as quoted on Wednesday, June 19, 2024.

The research team stated that TikTok remains most popular among young people. Regardless of usage purpose, the proportion using it for news has grown to 13% (a 2 percentage point increase across all countries) and 23% for the 18-24 age group.

This niche of young TikTok users is being leveraged by several politicians. The Reuters Institute provided examples from the Philippines and Indonesia.

Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, successfully utilized a TikTok campaign, attracting 2.2 million followers. Similarly, Indonesia's elected president, Prabowo Subianto, achieved victory in February 2024 through a social media campaign.

The Reuters Institute revealed that Prabowo's content featured artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images. "[This content] transformed the image of the former hardline general into a charming and endearing grandfather," wrote the research team.

This survey covered 47 countries with a total sample size of 94,943 people. Each surveyed country had a sample size exceeding 2,000 respondents. This *Study of Journalism* was conducted by YouGov using an online questionnaire in late January-early February 2024.

(See also: TikTok, the Most Downloaded App in Indonesia in 2023)