How To Scrape Data From TikTok With Python!

Introduction

If you’re a fan of Python and interested in data scraping, this article is for you! Today, we will learn how to pull basic data from a TikTok user's profile using Python. Specifically, we’ll extract the number of followers, following, and likes. To get started, make sure you have Python installed on your machine and an IDE of your choice. In this example, we’ll be using Python 3.10 and PyCharm Community Edition.

Prerequisites

Before we start coding, ensure you have the following packages installed:

Selenium (for web scraping)
Pandas (for data management)
WebDriver Manager (for handling browser drivers)

You can use the following pip commands to install these packages:

pip install selenium pandas webdriver-manager

Setting Up the Project

Import Required Packages
Begin your script by importing the necessary packages. While it may seem like a lot, we will utilize each one throughout the project.
Define the Web Scraper Using Selenium
We will use Selenium for this scraping task. If you have a preferred web scraper, feel free to modify the implementation. With Selenium, we can customize our web scraper settings using a function called Options.
The configuration options will disable the GPU for better stability and allow the scraper to run in the background.
Set Up the Web Driver
Next, we’ll initialize our web driver. We’ll be using Chrome as our browser. If you prefer a different browser, look up how to configure it with Selenium.
Define the TikTok User Link
Assign the profile link of the TikTok user you want to scrape to a variable. For demonstration purposes, you can use any TikTok user profile.
Navigate to the User's Profile
Use the driver.get() function along with the link variable to navigate to the specified TikTok profile website. To ensure the page fully loads, add a sleep function that pauses the script for at least two seconds.
Extract Data
Now comes the exciting part! Define variables to store the data we want to scrape: followers, following, and likes. Selenium provides a function to scrape data using XPath.
- To get the follower count, right-click on the follower number, select "Inspect Element," then right-click on the number again and select "Copy XPath." Paste this XPath into your extraction command.
- Repeat this process for the following and likes counts.
Print the Extracted Values
Finally, use print statements to output the scraped data values to the console.

Once you run this project, you should observe the console displaying the values of the TikTok user you specified.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully scraped basic TikTok data using Python. While this is a fundamental data extraction example, you now have the foundational tools to create more complex data scraping tasks.

Consider exploring additional data points from TikTok. I would love to hear your thoughts. If you have suggestions or want to connect, feel free to follow me on Twitter. Below, I’ve linked some of my favorite resources for learning programming.

Keyword

TikTok
Python
Web Scraping
Selenium
Data Extraction
XPath
Pandas
WebDriver Manager

FAQ

Q1: What is TikTok scraping?
A1: TikTok scraping involves extracting data from TikTok user profiles using a programming language like Python.

Q2: What packages do I need to install to scrape TikTok data?
A2: You’ll need to install Selenium, Pandas, and WebDriver Manager using pip.

Q3: Can I use a browser other than Chrome for scraping?
A3: Yes, you can set up a different browser with Selenium; however, you will need to refer to specific documentation for that browser.

Q4: Is scraping TikTok against their terms of service?
A4: Always check the terms of service of any website before scraping data. Be aware of the potential legal implications.

Q5: What type of data can I scrape from TikTok?
A5: You can scrape various data points, including follower count, following count, likes, and more.