TikTok beats Google to become 2021's most popular site!
Beijing, China - ByteDance's TikTok has become the world's most popular website in 2021, beating even Google, according to the latest data.
Web security company Cloudfare said in a blog post that TikTok had first taken the top spot on February 17, but that was only for a day.
The short-form video platform also took the top slot in March and in May, but it wasn't until August 10 that it took the top spot for several days.
Cloudfare said in the post that there were some days when Google was in first place, but it was TikTok which ruled over October and November, including on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
In 2020, TikTok was ranked the seventh most popular domain, showing a significant jump in popularity since last year.
Rounding out the top 10 most popular domains were Meta platform's Facebook, followed by Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, YouTube, Twitter, and WhatsApp.
TikTok was also the most popular social media domain this year, surpassing Facebook. YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram made it to the top five, followed by Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Quora.
Data provided by Cloudflare also found that Netflix and YouTube were the top two streaming sites in 2021, but HBO Max moved ahead of Hulu - majority owned by Disney – for the fourth spot and Paramount+ eighth, after having been released on March 2021.
TikTok announced in September it had officially hit one billion active monthly users.
Cover photo: imago/Christian Ohde