New report finds TikTok adds more than $1b to NZ economy

First created back in 2017, TikTok has become one of the world’s most popular social media apps, with rivals appearing to imitate the format with their own takes on short-form video. Still for some, it may still be associated with young people doing confusing dances, or aspiring street interviewers interrupting your night out by thrusting their phones into your face.

However, a new report from economic consultancy company Infometrics suggests TikTok has become increasingly useful for businesses. Speaking to Rova, Principal Economist Brad Olsen said it delivers quite a substantial return to the economy. 

“Infometrics' analysis shows a $1.2 billion contribution to GDP in 2025, with TikTok activity supporting nearly 10,000 jobs. That's because of how much discovery there is on the platform and how many people that use TikTok there are.” 

“They’ve seen a video, interacted with it, learned about a new product or service, then they go out and spend. “

The report shows nearly half of New Zealand businesses interact on TikTok in some way, shape, or form. 

“If you scale that up to the total number of businesses in New Zealand, you could be talking about over 300,000 Kiwi businesses using TikTok to get their message out there, to talk about what they're doing…That's generating sales and activity”.

Other key findings include:

• More than half of TikTok users (53%) purchase products or services every month after seeing content on TikTok, equivalent to 671,000 New Zealanders, with a median monthly spend of $300 across the relevant spending categories.

• Every month, an estimated 368,000 Kiwis visit a restaurant or café after discovering it on TikTok.

• TikTok users and businesses are highly diverse and represented across every region of New Zealand.

• More than half (54%) of TikTok-using business decision makers in New Zealand identify as Māori, Pacific Peoples, or of Asian heritage.

• TikTok has also become an important platform for the creator economy, with an estimated 411,000 Kiwis identifying as content creators. More than half of these creators (51%) reported earning income through brand partnerships, in-app gifting, or both.

• The top reasons for visiting TikTok are entertainment, relaxation, and discovery. Nearly 9 in 10 regular users (86%) say they use the platform as a source of entertainment, 77% to relax, 67% to learn about topics of interest, and 61% to find information.

With all these eyeballs on offer, Olsen notes that the big advantage of TikTok is that smaller operators are able to break through in a way which may not be possible for other platforms:

“It's not just for big businesses… In fact 15% of businesses using TikTok aren't actually using any sort of spending. They're not paying directly to get their marketing out there. They're just creating organic content and letting that go out and be seen by the public.”