Among US teens ages 12 to 17, 87.6% will use YouTube monthly this year, while 65.3% will use TikTok, according to our forecasts. YouTube’s penetration is reaching a ceiling, while TikTok’s is still rising fast; YouTube will rise just 1.5 percentage points this year compared with 2020, while TikTok will be up more than 13 points (from 51.7%).

TikTok is now the third largest social network in the US, ahead of Snapchat and Pinterest. Facebook won’t be able to stop the teen exodus, Instagram’s user base is growing older, and Twitter will start losing users.

Teens continue to leave Facebook, and the platform won’t be able to reverse that trend in 2022 or beyond. But in a surprising twist, the average age of a Facebook user is also starting to decrease.

Square opened its Cash App ecosystem to 13-17 year olds under parental supervision in the hopes of creating life-long users.

Among US teens ages 12 to 17, 87.6% will use YouTube monthly this year, while 65.3% will use TikTok, according to our forecasts. YouTube’s penetration is reaching a ceiling, while TikTok’s is still rising fast; YouTube will rise just 1.5 percentage points this year compared with 2020, while TikTok will be up more than 13 points (from 51.7%).

However, TikTok’s user base is broadening, so it’s important to remember that its users aren’t just teens. We estimate that about 18% of TikTok’s US users will be between the ages of 12 and 17 this year, while nearly half will be between the ages of 18 and 34. How should brands navigate brand safety concerns on TikTok?

Instagram’s new safety controls for teens could hurt attempts to attract them: The features are intended to halt harmful content, but teens were already losing interest in the platform, and additional limits could be counterproductive.

This year, its fastest growing age group will be ages 35 to 44 (up 7.2%), while gains will be much slower among teens 12 to 17 (0.7%) and young adults 18 to 24 (2.0%). In total, the number of Instagram users will hit 118.9 million this year, rising 3.7% from 2020. For more on social usage trends in Gen Z, see our article “More Gen Zers now use TikTok than Instagram in the US.”.