TikTok has become one of the most exciting and popular social media apps on the internet. Now, what’s the gist about this app? The social media application allows users to take videos of themselves, while acting or lip-syncing out comedy skits. These scenes usually last up to 15 seconds. The fun thing about TikTok is that it allows you to choose from a database of songs, image or video effects, and sound bites.
TikTok also promotes collaboration. You can do a “duet” with anyone once you reply to their video. Once you do this, a split-screen diptych appears. Another reason why TikTok has attracted millions of users is that they can upload their own sounds. So, you can lip-sync to someone else’s original video.
All these and many more make TikTok pretty much fun to use, and clearly explain why it has grown so popular. One report showed that as of September 2018, TikTok had more monthly installations in the App Store than Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat.
The social media app was also downloaded more than a billion times in the year 2018. Although this figure is smaller than Facebook’s 2.27 billion global monthly active users, it’s ahead of Twitter 336 million and Snapchat’s (186 million). Best believe, as of February 2019, TikTok had 27 million active users in the US.
This staggering figure has translated to success for its parent company, ByteDance. The Beijing-based Internet technology company surpassed Uber as the world’s most valuable startup in 2018. Per American technology news and media network, ByteDance is the first Chinese internet company with a “significant, genuinely engaged following around the world.”
TikTok’s head of marketing, Stefan Heinrich, said the company’s mission is to “capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge and moments that matter, directly from the mobile phone.”
Who is the founder of TikTok?
The social media app is the brainchild of ByteDance. A Chinese technology company was recently crowned the title of the world’s most valuable startup, valued at a whopping $75 billion.
ByteDance’s founder and Chief Executive Officer is Zhang Yiming. He was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2019.
ByteDance also owns a couple of mobile apps, including Jinri Toutiao (an app that translates as Today’s Headlines), which is a pretty popular news platform in China. Its international version is called TopBuzz.
CEO Zhang has once compared himself to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Uber, Travis Kalanick. He knows the social media app has blown up.
In an interview conducted in 2017, Zhang mentioned that he was only watching other people’s videos on the application without making any. He once believed that the application was for the younger generation. But he later made it compulsory for his management team members to make their TikTok videos.
Where did TikTok originate from?
Do you know that TikTok is not related to the 2009 Kesha song with the same name? It’s also not the first overly popular lip-syncing social media application. Moreover, it’s the second iteration of Musical.ly. Musically is an app that’s equally like TikTok in various ways.
The app, Musical.ly, was launched in 2014 by two Chinese entrepreneurs, named Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang. However, the social media app was acquired for the sum of $1 billion in November 2017.
The Beijing-based tech company, ByteDance, secured this acquisition. This company already owned the somewhat popular TikTok, which was an equivalent of Musical.ly. However, TikTok is called Douyin in China. In August 2018, the owners of TikTok fully incorporated Musical.ly. During that period, and all Musical.ly accounts were transferred to TikTok.
Despite the popularity of the social media app and its parent company’s growth, it is slowly growing on celebrities. Jimmy Fallon, for one, is an avid user of TikTok. American stand-up comedian and actress, Amy Schumer also uploaded her first TikTok last fall.
In the past year, it seems TikTok has made efforts to grab the attention of celebrities. It has carried out substantial You Tube ad campaigns. Moreover, the founders of TikTok have spent money to get celebrities like Cardi B and Offset hosted a sponsored holiday “wrap battle.”
However, TikTok has remained an app for teens and non-celebs. Despite this teens-only vibe, a good number of adults have hopped on the train. Once you open the social media application, you are taken into the worlds of regular American teenagers. Their videos have hundreds and thousands of likes and numerous comments.
TikTok’s video views are only available to the original poster. But if your video luckily ends up on the “For You” page (the home feed that showcases TikTok’s most popular content), you’re sure to receive approximately 50,000 to more than 1 million likes.
TikTok currently makes money through virtual gift sales. The founders also utilize brand collaborations, like a Guess-sponsored “fashion takeover.” The founders ensure that the social media app has no ads. However, the app’s privacy policy leaves room for adds in the future.
