New research from Public First, commissioned by TikTok, has revealed the scale of the platform's economic impact across the UK - including its growing dominance in fashion, beauty and retail discovery.

The report combines economic modelling by EY with independent surveys of 4,158 UK adults, 1,034 businesses and 336 creators, alongside immersive research conducted over Burns Night in Glasgow and during London Fashion Week.

Key findings:

• £10bn in economic growth - TikTok generated an estimated £10 billion in value add to the UK economy in 2025, supporting 153,000 jobs, with the potential to deliver a further £27 billion by 2030.
• The UK's fourth largest beauty retailer - TikTok Shop has grown 60% year-on-year to become the UK's fourth largest beauty retailer, with 30% of young adults (equivalent to 1.8 million people) naming TikTok as their main source for beauty and fashion recommendations.
• Fashion & beauty sales impact - 80% of fashion and beauty businesses say being featured on TikTok would help improve their sales and revenue, while 21% of TikTok creators post about fashion, beauty and skincare.
• Discovery drives demand - 85% of UK businesses on TikTok have worked with creators, and 28% say they have sold out of a product as a result of TikTok and TikTok Shop.
• A national, diverse audience - TikTok has over 30 million monthly active users in the UK, with over a third aged 35+ and a footprint spread across every UK nation and region.
• Casual creators as a growth engine - An estimated 8 million "casual creators" (users posting more than once a week) drive word-of-mouth discovery at scale, and are more than twice as likely as the UK average to want to start a business.

The research points to a fundamental shift in how consumers discover fashion and beauty. One fashion trends forecaster described TikTok as having a “symbiotic relationship with fashion” - trends now emerge and spread through the platform, with designers increasingly considering how their work will appear on it, even when they are not directly active there themselves.

Immersive research at London Fashion Week found that TikTok has made the event and the wider industry more accessible, opening up a world once experienced mainly through magazines and traditional media. As one interviewee put it: “The only way you used to have access to London Fashion Week was to pick up a magazine. But now, with creators attending shows, it's opening the doors.”

For more information, visit tiktokuk.publicfirst.co.