TikTok is an app designed for sharing short videos that usually show people acting, dancing or making jokes. Originally known as Musical.ly, the app is now one of the most downloaded ones in the whole world with over 500 million active monthly users.
The app is owned by a Chinese tech company ByteDance and is a result of a merge of two other apps: Musical.ly (a lip-syncing app that no longer exists) and Douyin (an active twin app of TikTok only available in China). What makes TikTok stand out is the fact that it is the only globally successful Chinese social network that has the whole world buzzin.
The key factor that makes TikTok overflow with content
The key factor that makes TikTok overflow with content is the active use of hashtags and challenges. Someone makes a video with a certain hashtag and this has other people jumping in and playing with the video’s format in their own style. Trends come and go, but once they are picked up by celebrity users, they go viral.
The concept of a short video sharing platform is not new at all. It was first introduced to us in 2012, when Vine took off. However popular Vine was with its 200 million active monthly users, it was closed in 2016, which led to a huge gap in the market. TikTok launched internationally two years later.
It appears that every few years a new social media platform is launched. Each presenting a new way we interact and create content, and TikTok is no exception. It is mostly used by the Generation Z, marking it the most progressive app out there.
What about TikTok is so great?
All previous social media platforms have paved the way to the app’s success. The gradually shortening attention span of Internet users has created a demand for fast content. TikTok, with its 15-second long videos, appears to be just what the people need.
Like everywhere else, you can follow other people and see their videos in your feed. However, once you log in, TikTok first offers the “for you” feed section, which is filled with strangers’ videos the app thinks you might like. This is the second key factor to TikTok’s success ー its algorithms. It doesn’t pay attention to how broad your audience is, when deciding if your videos should be recommended to someone. As a result, literally anyone can become popular. Other than that, TikTok offers other standard features like comments, likes and direct messages. It is worth noticing that becoming famous could be way easier by getting free tiktok followers from the one and only real provider FreeTikTok.com
TikTok is the perfect environment for creating memes. Users can add audios from other videos, as well as post reaction videos. This results in tons of references, inside jokes and, well, memes. It is the one place that, all jokes aside, can make you famous overnight. For instance, one of the most popular TikTok influencers, Loren Gray, now has over 38 million followers. There are a lot of things about TikTok that can be talked about for hours, but the best way to understand the app is to use it yourself.
