The Singapore Business Investment Forum (SBIF) in Cambodia recently organised a workshop on how to ‘Blow Up Your Business on TikTok’, breaking down how the social media platform and the power of short-form video content can be leveraged to promote business.
The workshop featured a presentation by social media influencer Heather Smith, who is known to her followers as ‘Auntie Heat’, followed by a panel discussion featuring Smith, TikTok influencer, Ricky Electric, and Anthony Galliano, CEO of Cambodian Investment Management (CIM), who represented B2B Cambodia.
TikTok’s Rapid Growth In Cambodia Closing Gap To Giants Like Facebook
During her presentation, Smith cited some global statistics from Statista that illustrate TikTok’s explosive growth, particularly over its much more established predecessors, Facebook and Instagram:
- In 2023, TikTok amassed 1.93 billion global users, a 16 per cent increase from the previous year.
- TikTok recorded the highest average time per month users spent using the platform, clocking at an average of 33 hours and 38 minutes, with YouTube ranking second at 27 hours and 26 minutes. Smith attributed this higher average watch time to the more addictive nature of TikTok’s platform, even despite being more popularly known for short-form content.
- TikTok shows high levels of engagement from its user base, with 29 per cent reported to open the app daily.
- Based on data from the United States, TikTok surpassed Instagram in total daily minutes in 2022 and is projected to surpass Facebook in 2025.
In the face of these impressive growth statistics, it should be noted that TikTok has been recently facing mounting pressure, particularly from the United States and the European Union, over data security concerns and potential breaches of online content regulations intended to protect children and ensure transparent advertising.
The social media platform has also been either fully or partially banned in 23 countries, as of 2024, due to the same concerns about national security and content regulation.
Why Use TikTok For Business Promotion In Cambodia?
Focusing more on the Cambodian market, where Facebook has long been the dominant social media site for both casual and professional use, Smith shared that TikTok’s ad reach in Cambodia has actually been on the rise, while Facebook is beginning to show a decline.
Presenting data collected from DataReportal, Smith presented that while Facebook still holds the top position in Cambodia in terms of ad reach, which was recorded at 10.45 million in 2023, the site still saw a decrease of 9.9 per cent (1.15 million) from the previous year (11.6 million in 2022).
Meanwhile, TikTok’s ad reach in Cambodia saw a 5.7 per cent rise from 6.68 million in 2022 to 7.06 million in 2023, expanding by approximately 381,000 users.
Smith told B2B Cambodia that a large part of TikTok’s growth can be attributed to a greater interest in the platform displayed by young people over older platforms like Facebook, as well as a growing preference for short-form content.
“The Cambodian population is actually quite young, and the youth of the population are using TikTok greatly,” said Smith. “So [TikTok is] actually going to overtake Facebook with ease because of the fact that a lot of [youth] don't even use Facebook anymore. They see it as antiquated, they say that that's what their parents use. So a lot of them are primarily staying on TikTok.”
TikTok is seeing tremendous growth, it's rising so fast, and it's growing at a percentage which is much higher than any of the Meta platforms. Meta platforms, with time, are actually dwindling down as the younger community is showing that they really enjoy short-form content, and that's what they really want to be engaging with, so I do think we need to start making shifts towards that.
TikTok User Demographics In Cambodia
Even while the youth demographic in Cambodia have helped to facilitate TikTok's quick rise, Smith pointed out that the platform also holds broad appeal across various age groups, including Gen X and baby boomers.
“Of course, the younger generation is definitely the core, I would say from age 25 and down all the way to maybe 13 or so, those are the demographics that we know are definitely spending a lot of time on TikTok,” she prefaced. “But there are a lot of older people that I have seen also using TikTok, a lot of people who would be considered ‘Gen X’ or ‘baby boomers’ doing a lot of interaction and making a lot of content on TikTok as well, so it's actually pretty wide reaching…”
Elaborating more on where TikTok users are located within Cambodia, Smith said that the analytics from her own follower-base show that most are primarily located in urban areas like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, usually between the 18 to 25 range. Surprisingly, however, she’s also noticed that a lot of her older followers are based in rural regions of the country, making a case for the social media platform’s widespread popularity and accessibility.
How Can Businesses Leverage TikTok’s Appeal Among Younger Audiences?
Smith emphasised that TikTok has the ability to accommodate a vast range of interests, from niche hobbies to serious content, making it a viable platform for diverse content creators, including businesses seeking to engage with specific audiences.
In her presentation she shared that 78 per cent of TikTok users purchased a product after seeing it featured in TikTok creator content, while 74 per cent of Gen Z (those born between the mid- to late-1990s and early 2010s) social media users perceive TikTok creators as reliable, underlining the selling power of influencers on the platform.
In Cambodia, Smith suggested that businesses looking to employ a content creator to help sell their products or services can look into three categories of influencers based on their particular business needs and available budget:
- Mega influencers, with over 1 million followers, like Cambodian rapper, VannDa, or Princess Jenna Norodom – these types of influencers are particularly fit for broad audience reach, but are less perceived as ‘experts’ in the products or services they are selling to audiences.
- Macro influencers, with between 100,000 to 1 million followers – they have decent audience reach and are better known for being ‘experts’ in particular fields.
- Micro influencers, with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers – they are best for producing niche content and reaching specific audience groups, while also being perceived as ‘experts’ in their particular fields.
Smith also clarified that while TikTok continues to be most well-known for its short-form content between 15 to 30 seconds long, the platform actually allows for videos up to 10 minutes in length, allowing for more content flexibility.
Comparing The Marketing Advantage: TikTok Vs. Facebook
Smith made a case for TikTok’s format and algorithm offering a more unique marketing advantage over platforms like Facebook, with its capacity for organic content promotion enabling businesses to reach wider audiences without substantial advertising spend.
I think that the TikTok algorithm is a little bit less money driven than Facebook is. I believe that as a business, or as a content creator, if you really want to be visible, it's quite hard to go viral on Facebook vs. TikTok, where you can accidentally go viral.
“TikTok's algorithm will just push out what they feel like people want to see if they see people engaging with it… whereas Facebook tries to encourage people to pay more, so that makes a bigger difference in the kind of content that is made and what it is that attention is drawn to because TikTok allows more for more organic discovery than I believe Facebook does,” she concluded.