While Google may be the most sought-after website around the world, a recent report by web performance and security firm, Cloudflare tells a different story!
According to Cloudflare’s Year in Review report, TikTok has surpassed Google to become the most popular domain worldwide in 2021 in terms of internet traffic. Besides Google, TikTok, a short video-sharing platform, also went past tech giants like Twitter, Meta, and Apple.
As per the report, Google.com (which includes Maps, Translate, Photos, Flights, Books, and News, among others) remained the undefeated leader in Cloudflare’s ranking leading from September to December 2020.
Back then, TikTok.com was ranked in seventh place in terms of popularity.
However, on February 17, 2021, TikTok gained the top spot for a day. Similarly, it got a few more days in March as well as May. But it was after August 10, 2021, that TikTok took the lead on most days.
Where on some days Google was #1, the months of October and November were mostly TikTok’s days, including Thanksgiving (November 25) and Black Friday (November 26).
One of the main reasons that is believed to have contributed to the surge in TikTok’s popularity is the COVID-19 pandemic that saw many people flocking to the platform looking for entertainment.
List of the most popular domains in late 2021:
1. TikTok.com
2. Google.com
3. Facebook.com
4. Microsoft.com
5. Apple.com
6. Amazon.com
7. Netflix.com
8. YouTube.com
9. Twitter.com
10. WhatsApp.com
List of the most popular domains of late 2020 for comparison:
1. Google.com
2. Facebook.com
3. Microsoft.com
4. Apple.com
5. Netflix.com
6. Amazon.com
7. TikTok.com
8. YouTube.com
9. Instagram.com
10. Twitter.com
Besides being the most popular domain of 2021, TikTok also dethroned Facebook to become the most popular social media platform of 2021, with Facebook in third place.
For more information, you can check out Cloudflare’s blog here to know how various websites were ranked in the year 2021.
