San Francisco, Dec 21 (IANS): A new forecast has claimed that short video platform TikTok is expected to become the world's third-largest social network in 2022.

The report by Insider Intelligence -- the firm previously known as eMarketer -- predicts that TikTok will reach 755.0 million monthly users in 2022, after seeing 59.8 per cent growth in 2020, followed by 40.8 per cent growth in 2021, reports TechCrunch reported on Monday.

"The rise of TikTok is especially challenging for Snapchat, with which it competes head-to-head for the youth audience," Insider Intelligence principal analyst, Debra Aho Williamson was quoted as saying by the website.

"Although TikTok does not share much similarity to Twitter, its massive size relative to the more-established platform is a clear reflection of the addictive nature of TikTok's content," she added.

Meta-owned Facebook, as of its most recent earnings, reported 2.91 billion monthly active users after seeing 6 per cent year-over-year growth. And recently, photo-sharing platform Instagram employees leaked its network had surpassed 2 billion monthly users, up from the 1 billion monthly user milestone reported in June 2018.

However, the forecast is referencing its own 2022 predictions, which uses a slightly different set of calculations. The firm has its own definition of a monthly active user that may differ from those of each company it analyses, the report said.

For example, it only counts users who log in at least once a month consistently over a calendar year period, and it attempts to weed out the fake accounts from its estimates. This is meant to provide clients with a more consistent "apples to apples" comparison across all platforms.