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TikTok has been the most visited website in 2021, according to new data.

The video app has become more popular than the previous winner, American search engine giant Google, thanks to a surge in popularity during the pandemic.

Last year TikTok was the seventh most popular while Google was in first place.

However, in 2021 the app got more hits than Google in February, March and June and stayed in the top spot from August.

TikTok also overtook other big American online companies that ranked above it last year, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Netflix.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is the only non-US site to feature in the top 10.

The app now counts more than 1 billion active users around the world.

The annual top ten rankings are compiled by Cloudflare, a web security company that also measures web performance.

Earlier in 2021, TikTok made some big changes to its privacy rules which they said was to protect its youngest users.

At the time, the company said it wanted to give younger users the option to "make informed choices about what and with whom they choose to share" and this also includes whether they want to make their accounts public or not.

2021 also saw the introduction of the Children's Code - a new set of rules designed to provide more protection to children online.

There are 15 standards online services must follow - these services include apps, games, social media sites like TikTok, and streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime TV.

What's been your most popular website or app of 2021? Let us know in the comments...