Public companies describe how they market, and what worries them, in their 10-K annual reports. We counted how often those reports mention TikTok, influencers, creators and the big video platforms, every year from 2019 to 2025, and read what they say about TikTok.
148 10-K annual reports filed in 2025 mentioned TikTok, against 4 in 2019, about 37 times as many; that is 2.2% of all 10-Ks filed that year. See details
Influencers appear in 5.7% of 2025 10-Ks, up from 2.3% in 2019; Instagram in 4.2% and YouTube in 3.3%. See details
Most filings mention TikTok for selling, not risk: in a random 60 of the 2025 filings, 36 described marketing, advertising or reaching an audience there, 12 named it as competition, and only 6 discussed the 2024 divest-or-ban law or other regulation. See details
The phrase "creator economy" stays rare: 9 of 6,690 10-Ks used it in 2025. See details
Counting attachments inflates the trend: under SEC rules adopted in 2022, 10-Ks now attach the company's insider trading policy, and many of those policies list social networks, adding 64 Instagram and 30 YouTube filings in 2025 whose main documents do not name them. See details
How many 10-Ks mention TikTok?
Companies listed in the U.S. file a 10-K annual report with the SEC every year, describing their business, how they market and what could go wrong. We counted, for each calendar year from 2019 to 2025, how many 10-K filings mention TikTok in the report itself, using the SEC's EDGAR full-text search. 148 did in 2025, against 4 in 2019: 2.2% of the 6,690 10-Ks filed that year, up from 0.06%.
10-K filings mentioning TikTok, 2019-2025Original 10-K filings whose main document mentions TikTok, by filing year.Use this chart on your site
The broader creator vocabulary grew too. 5.7% of 2025 10-Ks mention influencers, up from 2.3% in 2019; 4.2% mention Instagram (2.3% in 2019) and 3.3% YouTube (2.3%). Content creators appear in 1.4% and user-generated content in 1.5%.
Influencers, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok in 10-Ks, 2019 vs 2025Original 10-K filings whose main document mentions the term, as a share of all 10-K filings that year.Use this chart on your site
Mostly that the company sells there. We read the TikTok passages in a random 60 of the 148 2025 filings. 36 described marketing, advertising or reaching an audience on TikTok, from a retailer's ad budget to a brand's follower counts. 12 listed it as competition for viewers' time or advertisers' money. Only 6 discussed the 2024 law that required TikTok's sale or a U.S. ban, or other regulation, and 8 described TikTok as a sales channel or part of a product (TikTok Shop sellers, webcams sold to creators). A filing can count under several.
What 2025 10-Ks say about TikTokA random 60 of the 148 2025 filings, by what the mention is about (a filing can count under several).Use this chart on your site
Rarely. 9 of 6,690 10-Ks used the phrase in 2025, and short-form video came up in 13. Companies describe the same thing in their own words: influencers, content creators, social media marketing.
What this means
Creators are now a line in the marketing plan of public companies. One 10-K in 18 mentions influencers; in 2019 it was one in 44.
TikTok went from absent to routine in six years, and the ban debate did not stop companies marketing there.
Mentions are not spending. A 10-K that names TikTok tells you the company thought it worth a sentence, not how much it spends.
Counts. For each term and calendar year (by filing date) we queried EDGAR full-text search for 10-K filings containing the exact phrase, paged through every result and counted distinct original filings (amendments, 10-K/A, excluded) whose main document contains it. An exact phrase matches only the words as typed ("influencer" found 187 2025 10-K documents, "influencers" 327) and the search's wildcard does not work inside exact phrases, so singular and plural forms (influencer, influencers) were searched separately and combined (EDGAR full-text search FAQ).
Why the main document. Since the SEC's insider trading disclosure rules took effect, 10-Ks attach the company's insider trading policy as an exhibit (SEC Release 33-11138), and many of those policies list social networks by name. Counting every document would add 64 Instagram and 30 YouTube filings in 2025 that never mention the platforms in the report itself. The all-document counts are in the CSV.
Denominator. All 10-K filings (form type exactly 10-K) in the four quarterly EDGAR form indexes for each year. The full-text index holds a few percent fewer documents than the form index, so the shares are slightly conservative.
The TikTok sample. A random 60 of the 148 2025 filings; we pulled every passage that mentions TikTok, sorted it by topic with keywords, then checked every passage by hand against the filing.
Limitations
Mentions, not use. A filing may name a platform as a risk, a competitor or a marketing channel.
10-Ks only. Foreign companies filing 20-Fs, private companies and smaller firms outside SEC reporting are not counted.
Exact phrases. Spellings outside the list (TikTok's Chinese counterpart Douyin, "Tik Tok") are not counted.
A sample of 60. The topic shares can be off by about 10 points either way.
Mark Studios. "Creator Economy in SEC Filings Study." Published October 31, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/creator-economy-sec-filings-study
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, October 31). Creator economy in SEC filings study. https://www.markstudios.com/research/creator-economy-sec-filings-study
MLA
“Creator Economy in SEC Filings Study.” Mark Studios, 31 Oct. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/creator-economy-sec-filings-study.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Creator Economy in SEC Filings Study.” Last modified October 31, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/creator-economy-sec-filings-study.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_creator_economy_sec_filings_study_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Creator Economy in SEC Filings Study}},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/creator-economy-sec-filings-study},
note = {Last verified 2026-10-31}
}
Our counts and the CSVs are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page.
We plan to add each year's filings as they come in. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
October 31, 2026: First published.
October 31, 2026: Checked all 60 sampled TikTok passages by hand against the filings and corrected 15 topic labels: 36 of 60 filings are about marketing, ads or audience (was 37) and 8 about a sales channel or product (was 5); the 3 marked unclear are about competition. Also corrected the 2019 influencer ratio to one in 44 and the attachment counts to filings.
Frequently asked questions
How many public companies mention TikTok in their annual report?
In 2025, 148 original 10-K filings mentioned TikTok in the annual report itself, 2.2% of the 6,690 10-Ks filed that year, according to our count of SEC EDGAR full-text search. In 2019 the count was 4.
Why do companies mention TikTok in their 10-K?
Mostly as a marketing or advertising channel. In a random sample of 60 of the 2025 filings, 36 described using TikTok to market, advertise or reach an audience, 12 listed it as competition for attention or ad money, and 6 discussed the 2024 law that required its sale or a U.S. ban, or other regulation.
How many companies mention influencers in SEC filings?
379 of the 6,690 10-K filings in 2025 mentioned influencers in the main document (5.7%), up from 159 (2.3%) in 2019. Fewer named influencer marketing as such: 67 in 2025.
How did you count the filings?
With the SEC's EDGAR full-text search: every 10-K filed in a calendar year whose main document contains the term, counted once per filing and excluding amendments, divided by the number of 10-K filings in EDGAR's form indexes for that year. Singular and plural forms are combined.
Can I use this data?
Yes. The per-term counts and the TikTok sample are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. The filings are public records on SEC EDGAR.
