Nearly 400 million people in Latin America will use social networks in 2022. Facebook remains the region's biggest platform, but it will experience its slowest user growth on record this year as TikTok and Instagram make gains.

User adoption of TikTok has exploded. With over 130 million regional users this year, TikTok needs to become an integral part of advertisers’ channel mix. While its user base skews younger than those of other platforms, TikTok is quickly attracting older users as well. These demographic shifts will provide advertisers with fertile territory to engage consumers of all ages, not just teenagers.

Square and Shopify let sellers set up shop on TikTok. Creator payments. Providers are looking at enabling direct payments, which may lead to more features like Twitter’s PayPal- and Stripe-operated tip jar and Super Follows. Platform ownership. After acquiring Tidal, Block (formerly Square) is using it to build out artist payouts and will continue to add integrations.

As platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok ramp up their social commerce capabilities, they have become a go-to spot for consumers to seek out product information, compare prices, and read reviews from other customers.

That’s not a new trend, but their popularity among marketers has grown over the past several years thanks in large part to TikTok. Influencer marketing on TikTok is powered by organic content (primarily from “everyday” creators with more niche audiences) that can go viral, reaching beyond its original audiences.

TikTok’s adoption has exploded. In our inaugural forecast, we estimate that TikTok surpassed the 100 million user mark in the region last year. In 2022, users will surge 12.8% year over year (YoY) to 136.1 million. More than 3 in 10 internet users will be on the platform.

TikTok: In March 2021, Walmart partnered with TikTok for a second live shopping event on the platform, following a pilot of the livestream shopping program in December 2020. Walmart hasn’t provided sales figures from the first live event but told TechCrunch in March that it received seven times more views than expected and a 25% increase in its TikTok follower count.

This report explores the impact the pandemic has had on our latest regional estimates and trends for total media, traditional media, digital, and mobile ad spending in six markets in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.

For the first time, we have published our TikTok user forecast for Mexico, one of the hardest-hit countries by the pandemic. As people there stayed home more in 2020, many turned to the internet for entertainment, and the number of monthly TikTok users surged 222.5% year over year, according to our estimates.

It’s no secret that consumers in Latin America are notoriously heavy social network users; 87.1% of the region’s internet users will use a social network at least once a month in 2020, more than those in any other world region. Now, TikTok is benefiting from that love of online socializing where its blend of music, dancing, and video is attracting a fast-growing audience.