TikTok is recovering from a decline in usage that rival apps benefited after an ownership change in the United States

TikTok has largely recovered from a slight decline in active users in the days following its ownership change, when a group of American investors took control of the video app’s US operations. The decline, though brief, has benefited rival video apps like UpScrolled and Skylight Social, which have seen rapid adoption by users as some look for TikTok alternatives.

According to estimates by digital market intelligence firm Sameweb, TikTok saw usage drop to the range of 86-88 million daily active users in the US immediately after the ownership change. This compares to a typical average of 92 million daily active users.

The app has returned to over 90 million daily active users, suggesting that many who left TikTok have since returned.

As TikTok saw a slight decline in usage, alternative video sharing apps UpScrolled and Skylight Social began to grow quickly. Although it is only a fraction of TikTok’s size, UpScrolled surpassed 138,500 daily active users at its peak on January 28; It has now fallen to 68,000.

Meanwhile, Skylight Social reached 81,200 daily active users, according to SimilarWeb estimates and has since dropped to 56,300 daily active users. Overall, Skylight Social saw an increase in user signups to 380,000 as of late January, the company told TechCrunch.

The decline in TikTok usage, which prompted some to try new apps, was not directly driven by the ownership change, but rather by users fearing it would impact their TikTok experience. There have been growing concerns over TikTok’s updated privacy policy, which gave the app permission to track users’ precise GPS location. (This addition may be related to TikTok’s testing of a “nearby” feed to show users videos from local creators, but it was added to the policy alongside a change in ownership, leading to user backlash over privacy concerns.)

Rereading the privacy policy, some users also discovered disturbing language, such as how TikTok said it may collect users’ “immigration status,” among other personal data. However, this turned out to be a reference that was included because of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which requires companies to notify consumers if they collect certain sensitive data. TikTok does that – meaning anything someone shares on the platform in their video content technically becomes part of the platform, so it requires disclosure.

Additionally, TikTok experienced a temporary data center outage for several days, causing the app to not function properly, sometimes crashing search, likes, and comments, causing video glitches, crashing the algorithm, and creating in-app chat issues. Users believe that these errors mean that TikTok is now censoring their content, prompting them to look for alternatives.

The data center outage, which led to power outages due to the winter storm, has been resolved, the company announced Sunday evening.

As users came to terms with the new terms and conditions and issues caused by the outage were resolved, users returned to the platform, Sameweb data shows. But there’s still hope for newcomers, as the company notes that TikTok usage has slowly declined over the latter part of 2025, when usage peaked at 100 million daily active users from July to October 2025, compared to more than 90 million users currently.