The Truth About Tiktok
If it feels like everyone you know is using TikTok, you’re probably right! It is currently the fastest growing social media platform, beating out Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and more.
The Chinese short video-sharing app is hugely popular, racking up billions of views and engagements in almost all 195 countries in less than five years.
Despite its success, it was also fraught with controversy. It was banned in Indonesia in 2018 and India in 2020, with former US President Donald Trump threatening to pull the plug, accusing it of being a spying app for the Chinese government. But none of these controversies seem to bother its fans, and it continues to attract a wide variety of users and the content they create. So what makes TikTok um… tick?
Launched in Shanghai in 2014 as App Musical.ly, TikTok is a social networking app that offers short 15-second videos of singing, lip-syncing, choreography and more.
In November 2017, ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming acquired Musical.ly for about $1 billion. Musical.ly became TikTok in 2018, and the rest is history.
ByteDance is an ambitious Chinese technology company that dreams of building a global technology company in China that is “as borderless as Google.” Of course, this dream is nearly impossible, since communist China operates a very different internet than the rest of the planet. Western apps like Youtube and Facebook are banned, so you’ll find many similar homebrew apps. However, before TikTok, no one had stepped onto the international stage.
So what makes TikTok different? It is powered by artificial intelligence and creates a personalized feed based on the user’s interests. For some, however, it can be dangerous from a mental health standpoint. It’s content-based, so it’s not a closed network. You may see content you like from people you don’t know or interact with at all.
Content really is the key to TikTok. You can post anything public, including travel, music, dance, fitness, parody, hobbies, and more. Of course, entertainment comes first, but more and more financial, educational, and even other business-growth-related content is appearing on the app every day.
TikTok’s marketing prowess has also contributed to its popularity. The product itself is great, and it’s easy to create shareable videos with its built-in editing features. Users are then encouraged to share their TikTok content on other social media platforms. It might sound counterintuitive, but it’s getting a lot of free publicity.
They also let content creators intentionally beat the TikTok algorithm, giving them a taste of glory. As their TikToks exploded and went viral, it pushed creators to come up with more content, and the quality increased with the number of videos.
What does the future hold for TikTok? The possibilities are endless. While many see it as a collection of silly dance challenge videos, the platform is growing rapidly, and its following is growing — and with minimal effort from its founders. Its implications for the future of advertising and online shopping, as well as sources of information (news and education) are exciting.
