According to a recent study conducted by GEOPOLL, TikTok is now the second most widely used social network in sub-Saharan Africa, behind Facebook, which remains the most popular social network.
Indeed, TikTok usage in the region has grown significantly in recent years. According to the study, the Chinese social network is used by 60% of respondents, compared to 54% for Instagram and 49% for X (formerly Twitter).
This upward trend also seems to apply to French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries. According to the latest results of the Africascope 2022-2023 study conducted in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, DRC, Gabon, Congo, Mali, and Burkina Faso, TikTok is also continuing to grow, with 42% of internet users now having a TikTok account (average across the eight countries). This figure rises to 72% in Senegal, 64% in Mali, and 46% in Côte d'Ivoire, which are the three countries where TikTok is most established.
In fact, the most followed personality in the world on the Chinese social network is none other than Khaby Lame, a personality originally from Senegal.
Khaby Lame was born in Senegal in 2000 and has lived in Italy since he was a child. At the age of 22, he became the most followed personality on the social network TikTok with nearly 142.4 million followers, surpassing American Charli D'Amelio thanks to his parodies. On the platform, without saying a single word, he demonstrates that when faced with sophisticated or far-fetched solutions, we can achieve the same result using simple gestures and a little common sense. Khaby Lame reminds us of this in his videos with his calm and surprised demeanor. After discovering TikTok in 2019, he began producing short videos that quickly became successful and well-known. With advertising campaigns for Pepsi and Hugo Boss, a nomination as a judge for the Cannes Film Festival in the section dedicated to TIKTOKERS, and more, he became the most followed personality in the world on TikTok and, in just a few months, a true global star.