TikTok has captured a quarter of the global population.

According to the latest data from Sensor Tower, in the first quarter of 2026, the global non-game mobile app market maintained growth overall, with both downloads and revenue increasing. In the content and cross-border e-commerce sectors, TikTok's global MAU (Monthly Active Users) exceeded 2 billion for the first time, while TEMU and SHEIN's MAUs reached 530 million and 440 million respectively.

In terms of short dramas, the global quarterly download volume approached 790 million times. FreeReels, a subsidiary of Kunlun Wanwei, led with 115 million downloads, a 137% increase from the previous quarter, with cumulative downloads exceeding 200 million times. NetShort and ByteDance's Melolo also saw significant growth in downloads. In the AI application sector, ByteDance's overseas version of Doubao, Dola, had a quarterly download volume of over 72 million times, with cumulative downloads exceeding 200 million; AI video tool PixVerse saw a 92% increase in downloads from the previous quarter, with cumulative downloads breaking 100 million.

Image source: Sensor Tower

TikTok is the international version of Douyin launched by ByteDance in May 2017. In September 2021, TikTok announced that its global monthly active users had surpassed the 1 billion mark.

Looking solely at the e-commerce business, according to the TikTok Shop market report released by Singapore venture capital firm Momentum Works in conjunction with video commerce data platform Tabcut, by 2025, TikTok Shop's e-commerce business will cover 16 markets, with a global GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) reaching 64.3 billion US dollars (approximately 444.4 billion RMB), a sharp increase of 94% year-on-year.

Specifically, the United States remains TikTok Shop's largest single market, with a GMV of 15.1 billion US dollars; however, the growth rate has slowed, with a year-on-year increase of about 68%. Southeast Asia is TikTok Shop's largest regional market and the core engine driving growth, with a GMV of 45.6 billion US dollars, doubling year-on-year. Among them, although Malaysia has a smaller share, it has the fastest growth rate; Indonesia and Thailand still rank in the top two markets and continue to show impressive growth; Singapore is the only market that has seen a decline.

Looking at different channels, the platform's sales structure continues to lean towards live streaming and malls, but short videos remain the most intensive area of transactions. Data shows that by 2025, the GMV proportion of TikTok Shop's short video-driven sales decreased from 58% to 50%, with the changed parts evenly flowing to live streaming e-commerce and online malls, among which the transaction volume proportion of live streaming e-commerce increased from 10% to 14%, and that of malls increased from 32% to 36%.

Source: E-commerce Dispatch