If you are over 16 years old, you probably need to have the appeal of TikTok explained to you .
TikTok is a short video maker app that allows users to sing, dance, act, or make memes as a backdrop to prerecorded songs or audio clips. It allows a wide range of editing, which facilitates the creation of content such as viral challenges or humorous scenes.
In a short time, the short video application TikTok, developed by the Chinese company Bytedance, has become one of the most successful applications in the world. Its popularity is a noteworthy aspect as it marks the beginning of the influence of Chinese technology companies on users around the world. No other Chinese app has been as successful as TikTok. It has more than 1,500 million downloads in total . Why is it so popular?
The origin
The concept of a short or short video app first came up with Vine in 2012. It is not new. But after Vine’s closure in 2016, there was a void for short videos, which TikTok managed to fill. The percentage of 18-24 year olds using Vine was around 28.1% (200 million monthly users). Chinese technology companies took advantage of this moment to present a few apps on this topic, such as Kuaishou and Douyin . In fact, the latter became very popular in China and the Bytedance company decided to launch the international version of Douyin, which we know as TikTok, in January 2018. Shortly thereafter, it became one of the most popular social platforms among teenagers and teens. Generation Z (group between 13 and 24 years old). Adults, for the most part, don’t fit in on TikTok, mainly because it’s full of teenagers in high school.
ByteDance has a market value of $ 75 billion, making it the most valuable private company in the world. It has received investments from some of the largest venture capital firms in the world, including SoftBank, General Atlantico Sequoia Capital.
And it is that, every few years, a new application appears that begins to redefine the way we use social networks, as they manage to capture the spirit of culture and offer increasingly useful ways to interact among users.
The key to TikTok
When a new app comes on the market and starts to grow in popularity, it can be difficult to understand why it becomes a viral app. Instagram, without going any further, seemed like a simple photo filter app, but little by little it grew into a more ambitious brand and social media platform. After adopting Snapchat Stories, they further seduced users and dominated the platform. Today it is the most used feature.
Regarding TikTok, there is a huge market of users looking for micro-entertainment and distraction for a few minutes throughout the day . This is the trump card of TikTok. The videos are fun and short; They are all the rage and the only way to really understand TikTok is to use it. And its results are tremendous: TikTok has surpassed Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat in terms of monthly installs; Yes, it has fewer users than Facebook, but more than Twitter and Snapchat, which is saying.
However, there are two main reasons for its great success : first, we already discussed it at the beginning, before launching TikTok, its Chinese variant Douyin had already gained great popularity and proved to be a successful product locally; Second, Bytedance acquired a competitive video-sharing website called Musical.ly, and by acquiring it, it was able to expand its user base for TikTok quickly. That is the key to success.
TikTok has also become the newest platform to turn regular users into viral sensations and hit influencers. Currently, the most popular star of this video social network is Loren Gray, who has more than 38 million followers.
