Redseer helped TikTok measure its economic and social impact in the UAE 

Executive Summary 

The UAE wants to double its GDP and grow its SMB base to one million businesses by 2031, and its long-term plan is to treat digital platforms as economic infrastructure, not just consumer apps. Redseer was engaged to quantify what TikTok, a leading digital media platform, actually contributes to that agenda in practice. Redseer looked at how much economic value the platform creates, how many jobs and businesses it supports, and everyday benefits like new skills, tourism, and wellbeing that standard growth numbers miss. 

About the Client 

Our client is TikTok, a leading digital media platform, seeking an independent, data-driven assessment of its economic and social contribution to the United Arab Emirates. 

The Problem Statement 

Government-set digital economy targets are usually expressed as national aggregates, GDP growth, SMB counts, and job creation. But the platforms driving day-to-day digital activity rarely have a rigorous, independently modelled answer to how much of that national progress they’re responsible for. Our client needed to move beyond usage and engagement statistics to a real economic and social impact case.  

The core question was “What is the platform’s measurable contribution to the UAE’s economic diversification and human development goals, and how much of that value is currently invisible to standard GDP accounting?” 

The Approach 

We built the assessment on three methodological pillars, combining primary research, economic impact modelling, and the valuation of benefits that standard GDP accounting misses. Each was mapped to the UAE’s own national digital economy ambitions, so the findings speak to goals the country has already committed to: 

1. Primary research: Four dedicated surveys across the UAE, covering 350 SMBs, 350 platform users and 167 creators, alongside more than 1,000 users in the UK and US, supported by in-depth discussions with creators and businesses. Aligned to official SMB and census figures, this primary base grounds every claim in the assessment. 

2. Economic impact modelling: An input-output model that traced TikTok-driven SMB revenue, from both paid advertising and the platform’s free business tools, through the wider economy to estimate gross value added and jobs across direct, indirect and induced effects. Built on official UAE statistics and calibrated to our SMB survey, the estimates are deliberately conservative, covering SMBs alone and excluding large enterprises. 

3. Quantifying benefits beyond GDP: Stated-preference techniques to put a value on benefits that never reach official accounts: a willingness-to-accept measure of what users would need to give up access for a month, and a producer-surplus valuation of the free tools the platform gives businesses. 

The Outcomes 

1. The assessment produced a three-part contribution case. On economic enablement, the work moved the story from reach to contribution. Over 70,000 UAE SMBs advertise on TikTok, but our analysis established that around 10,000 businesses exist today because the platform lowered the barrier to starting one, including roughly 3,500 women-led and 1,400 Emirati-led. Our economic impact model then showed that this activity contributed AED 1.1 billion in gross value added and supported 7,000 jobs in 2024, the genuine economic footprint behind the usage. 

2. On the creative economy, the work established how far creative participation translates into income and sector growth. Our creator survey established that one in four creators said the platform was the main reason they started creating at all, and in 2025 more than 3 million creators in the UAE went live on it, around three-quarters of them earning income from their streams. We also quantified a direct line to diversification, estimating that the platform influences around 10% of tourist spending, feeding the UAE’s tourism goals. 

3. The most distinctive part of the work put a number on value that sits outside GDP entirely. In Redseer’s 2024 user survey, 75% of users credited the platform with building professional skills and 81% with building personal skills. To value the benefit that standard accounting misses, Redseer ran a willingness-to-accept survey question, asking users what compensation they would need to give up access for a month. The median user valued access at AED 70 a month, which, extrapolated across adult monthly active users in the UAE, implies roughly AED 2 billion a year in consumer benefit, spanning skills, connection, and cultural expression across the UAE’s 200+ nationalities, none of which shows up in standard economic accounting.