TikTok alters morning routines of young Finnish people: telecom operator

HELSINKI - The social media video sharing platform TikTok has altered the morning routines of young Finnish people, Finnish telecommunications provider DNA said on Wednesday in a press release.

"Whereas children for decades have been watching children's programmes on television before going to school, they now spend time with TikTok in the morning," the release said.

The mobile data statistics collected by DNA showed a clear spike in TikTok usage between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. while such a morning curve does not appear in any other social media platforms, DNA pointed out.

As the international version of the Chinese video sharing platform Douyin, TikTok is one of the most recent social media applications and has already become one of the top mobile applications calculated by number of users. In the meanwhile, TikTok's user profile is young.

According to a recent survey conducted by DNA, one in five Finnish parents of children aged 5 to 12 said that their children use TikTok daily or several times a week. The share has increased by 9 percentage points compared to last year. Among 13-16-year-olds, 62 percent of the age group are daily TikTok users, which is an increase of 26 percentage points compared to last year.

Jarno Haikonen, vice president of the DNA broadband and television business, noted that TikTok is clearly a service for schoolchildren and young people, and in some families it has already made itself children's long-standing No. 1 activity in morning time.

Meanwhile, another DNA survey indicated that 71 percent of 16-24-year-old users used TikTok daily. The share in 25 to 34-year-olds was 19 percent and while in older age categories under ten percent.