TikTok has already proved to be a powerhouse in the social media world. Brands see it as a worthy investment, marketers as a helpful tool and publishers try to reach new audiences specifically through TikTok.

Even though there are many concerns about the platform’s issues with data protection and misinformation, there are more and more news outlets joining the platform every month. According to research by the Reuters Institute over 80% of leading publishers in Spain, France and the UK operate active accounts on TikTok. TikTok became so prevalent that, despite the issues, you shouldn’t ignore it.

Let’s see what top media outlets on TikTok are at the start of the new year.

Editor’s note: This article is the latest instalment of The Fix’s regular rankings of European news publishers on TikTok (see the previous ranking for mid-2022). If we missed somebody in our ranking or if you would like to suggest other changes, please message newsroom@thefix.media

Trailblazers have the upper hand

Daily Mail has been at the top or leading our TikTok chart for a long time. Despite new publishers constantly joining, including the UK’s media giants like The Sun and BBC, the Daily Mail remains on top. Spanish digital publisher Ac2ality, second by followers, leads by user engagement, with more than 314 million likes.

Still, although having joined earlier is an obvious advantage, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful by joining TikTok now. Our ranking has a lot of new publishers; their TikTok accounts grew in less than a year to the level of the publishers that had been in our ranking for some time already. Sky News is in the top five, getting ahead of Brut Officiel, Teen Vogue, Konbini and others.

Leaders can only grow so fast

While Daily Mail and the Ac2ality are still leaders, their growth since May 2022 is 14-16%, which might mean that a channel can only grow as fast when you come to a certain point. On the other hand, most of the publishers that had already been lower down the list, like BBC, Brut Officiel, El Mundo, and Marca, have shown amazing growth of more than 50%.

You can get on top in less than a year in TikTok – if you have an audience on other platforms. This year’s novices, like The Sun and Heuteshow (ZDF), are well-established media, sports channels or shows that had a massive following on other mediums.

Big media organisations operate multiple successful accounts

For big media organisations, growing one big account with all of the shows and channels is not a good strategy; it’s better to have separate TikTok accounts for different channels that produce different content.

What stands out from this year’s ranking is that there are more and more accounts created on TikTok that are either in different languages for a publisher already present on the platform or are a part of the bigger network (for example, BBC has separate accounts for BBC1 and BBC Radio).

Some channels, like DW, proved to be successful not only with their network channels but also in promoting some of their other news programs, like DW Jaafartalk and DW Zapovednik.

Changing nature of TikTok: is hard news a new trend?

From the start, TikTok has been mainly a platform for entertainment. Through different rankings compiled by The Fix, we have seen that digital publishers who mix fun and news are especially successful. After all, it is important to fit in on the platform full of viral dances, astrology, and cooking videos.

However, over time, not only more and more hard news publishers joined TikTok, but in some cases they are becoming more popular than entertainment channels. The Daily Mail, BBC, DW, Tageschau, and RTVE are all on top of the ranking. As TikTok’s audience has grown, there is apparently more demand for hard news content.

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Top European publishers on TikTok in 2023