TikTok has overtaken Google as the most visited website in 2021. During the year, the Chinese video platform won the duel with the American search engine.

Some voices attribute this development to the expected increase in the amount of time people spend on social media platforms every day as a result of the pandemic. However, whether this development does not also apply to websites in general and thus also to search engines such as Google, as might be expected, has yet to be shown with data.

Of the various reasons cited for TikTok’s success, one that everyone seems to agree on is the seemingly omniscient algorithm that has perfected addictive video recommendations like no other platform. We also tried the video recommendations and only narrowly escaped its addictiveness. Beware!

Top ten web domains in popularity in 2021 according to web host Cloudflare:

1. TikTok
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Microsoft
5. Apple
6. Amazon
7. Netflix
8. YouTube
9. Twitter 
10. WhatsApp

Sources

Cloudflare blog post: In 2021, the Internet went for TikTok, space and beyond
https://blog.cloudflare.com/popular-domains-year-in-review-2021/

Cloudflare Radar data tool
https://radar.cloudflare.com/?date_filter=last_30_days

UPI: Tik Tok replaces Google as world’s most popular website
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/12/28/TikTok-Google-top-internet-domain/7771640700398/

BBC NEWS: TikTok ousts Google to become favourite online destination
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59768617

Popular Science: A look inside TikTok’s seemingly all-knowing algorithm
https://www.popsci.com/technology/tiktok-algorithm/