If you are into the world of social media, then you probably have heard of TikTok before, even if you aren’t, you’ve still probably heard of this platform. It is said to be the next greatest thing in the world of social media and young and old alike are using this platform with their friends, to follow influencers on and spend their days watching videos.
Since gaining a significant amount of traction, TikTok has been in the news a lot, for both good and bad reasons. This social media platform was developed by a Chinese company called ByteDance and they launched the app a few years ago, in 2017. It was marketed to places outside of China and the app is available in both iOS and Android.
The age group that uses TikTok the most in, unsurprisingly, the 18-24 group, and as the age groups get older there are less and less people that use it. TikTok, like a number of other social media platforms was built for the younger generation. In total there are about 500 million active TikTok users in the world. The thing to watch though is the new users, and in Q1 of 2019 there was over 13 million new US users that joined TikTok.
Just How Good Is TikTok?
The name of the app was changed to TikTok when the developers wanted to launch the product internationally. TikTok purchased another app in late 2017, called Musical.ly and transferred all the users from this app to TikTok, which gave the TikTok a pretty substantial injection of audience numbers.
It took only around one year for TikTok to reach 600 million downloads across the world, making it the fourth most downloaded app. All this attention and downloading of the app allowed for the revenue of TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, to explode.
Why TikTok? What Does it Have That Others Don’t?
With TikTok exploding the in market it is leaving many asking what do users get out of TikTok that they can’t currently get from any of the other social media platforms. There are a few similarities between TikTok and other social media platforms, but TikTok is thought to offer a lot more creative options for people making videos to work with.
The algorithm is also set up in a very clever way that makes users watch video after video and spend hours at a time on this platform. The range in what you can do in the videos is something that users like as well. Some of the most popular types of videos are dance videos, lip syncing to songs or other people, or even funny videos.
The app is extremely easy to use and facilitates great ability to interact with others on this platform. TikTok also worked to bring some high profile celebrities on board with the app as well, which has worked to bring on followers of that celebrity who are curious on what they are doing.
TikTok The Marketing Tool
Like a number of different social media platforms, TikTok is transforming itself into a marketing weapon for businesses. Similar to what Snapchat was able to do, TikTok is working with brands to market themselves through this app, which will bring in a lot more cash for the app.
Due to the fact that you can do so much stuff on TikTok, no brand is really off limits. Businesses can get TikTok celebrities to market their products, through influencer marketing. Businesses are also able to create their own account and market their products this way as well.
