Estimates from advertising agencies show that in the 18+ segment, the race for the largest audience in Ukraine has intensified: YouTube is still in the lead, but TikTok is already close, while Facebook continues to lose reach.
Estimates from advertising agencies show that in the 18+ segment, the race for the largest audience in Ukraine has intensified: YouTube is still in the lead, but TikTok is already close, while Facebook continues to lose reach.
The UAMASTER study, which Forbes Ukraine writes about, summarizes the projected monthly reach from advertising platforms as of January 1, 2026. This is not a «user census», but an estimate of how many people can potentially be reached through targeting.
According to these figures, YouTube has about 23 million reach. Next comes the Meta ecosystem (all ad placements: Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta platforms) with 21.6 million and TikTok with 21.538 million, so the gap from the leader has become minimal. TikTok also stands out in terms of demographics: there are more men than women, 12.622 million versus 8.916 million. For YouTube, the picture is the opposite, the female audience is estimated at 11.2 million, the male audience at 9.58 million, and another 2.22 million viewers who did not indicate their gender.
In the middle group, Instagram rose to 13.238 million, and Facebook fell to 9.9675 million. LinkedIn is forecasted to have 5.1 million, Threads is estimated at 2.624 million, and X.com is only 948 thousand, meaning Threads is almost three times larger in reach.
It is separately noted that TikTok began to be systematically included in advertising media plans for Ukraine only since April 2025. There are no forecasts in targeting tools for Telegram, Viber, and WhatsApp, so the market operates only with ranges of estimates.
The advertising and communications market in Ukraine is estimated to have grown to UAH 33.4 billion in 2025, and UAH 37.3 billion is forecast for 2026. Changes in platform coverage directly affect the allocation of budgets and the choice of channels.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how TikTok is launching a set of «anti-mindscrolling» tools and even handing out badges to those who limit their time in the feed.
