No longer just the cringy content hub for lip syncing videos, TikTok has finally been embraced by celebrities, YouTubers, and the masses alike, but how did we get here?
As a twenty-something who grew up with Snapchat, Instagram, and the trash heap that is the Facebook news feed, I was admittedly slow to catch onto the hype that surrounds TikTok.
At first it seemed like a platform dedicated solely to the younger fans of the now defunct musical.ly, a place for kids to post videos of themselves dancing to pop tracks and share them with classmates. It was alienating to anybody over the age of twelve and for a long while it was mostly avoided by anybody trying to take themselves remotely seriously online.
As the years have gone on, however, TikTok has extended far beyond its musical origins, now offering up a wide variety of Vine-like sketches, beauty tip videos, and memes, as well as those original dance videos it made its name on. It’s become a much more brand friendly place – despite the odd security concern – and has made a deliberate effort to distance itself from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
Right now it’s the number one downloaded app on the App Store. Celebrities are hopping on and sharing content with over a million unique viewers. In many ways it now fulfils that social itch that Facebook once catered for; a place for immediate gratification, quick, fun content, and social interaction between people of all ages. It isn’t plagued with advertising and it gives users a huge variety of tools to play around with.
In short, TikTok is the big thing in social media, the killer app that mixes the best of its competition into one package.
All of this growth and improved accessibility hasn’t come by accident. TikTok has had to shift its branding to move away from its Chinese origins in Western countries due to concerns over privacy and data handling, a situation that even involved US security probes in December.
As the platform has grown the company has changed its moderation policies to be far more intricate and country sensitive, and has also reduced the amount of China-based content is shown to users outside of Asia. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance doesn’t receive any personal data on Americans, regardless of whether or not it asks for it – which it never has.
TikTok has also spent a ton of money on advertisement, which you’ve probably seen on YouTube and Facebook more than a few times. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company has spent hundreds of millions on social media advertising over the last few months, and continues to try and separate itself from ByteDance, which is China based.
All of this effort has clearly worked. Over 100 million Americans have downloaded the app, evidently unphased by its country of origin. With a country-specific feed and a broad audience, TikTok is now full of eclectic content, no longer stuck to lip-syncing videos.
Why has TikTok had such a huge impact?
TikTok’s interface is reminiscent of social media feeds from a decade or so ago.
It focuses on the people behind the content you’re watching, encouraging a sense of connection and doing so in a rapid, no-nonsense manner. As soon as you open the app up you begin watching videos, and all you need is a simple swipe downwards to move onto the next one. It’s clean, obvious, and clutter-free, all qualities that can’t be said for its older rivals such as Snapchat or Facebook.
In fact, TikTok shows up these other platforms for just how dusty and archaic they’ve become. When I open up Facebook I don’t even know what I’m looking at or where it’s come from half the time. Why are dog pictures of my auntie’s friend appearing on my news feed next to five different advertisements for companies I’ve never heard of? Facebook in particular is a cluttered mess, one that most of us use out of necessity rather than novelty.
Where these companies have gone overboard with advertisement and business friendly spaces, TikTok makes a deliberate effort to keep things light and fun, focusing solely on video content, which is the most effective way to retain Gen Z’s attention. It’s a much more open-ended and eclectic version of Vine, basically, and is now attracting famous Instagram influencers and YouTubers who previously did everything they could to avoid it.
One example being KSI, who just yesterday challenged his audience to a challenge involving his new song ‘Wake Up Call’. It’s obviously a marketing ploy to get the song onto the charts, but his admission of enjoying the app speaks volumes for how far TikTok has come in terms of public perception. He’s not the only top celebrity taking the app on, either. A-listers including Kevin Hart, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, and Jake Paul are all making content, while shows such as Love Island are forking out cash to get hashtags trending on the discovery page.
The next step for the platform is currently unclear, but given its huge audience and popularity with Gen Z, I anticipate that it’ll be around for a long, long time. Whether TikTok fully separates from ByteDance in the future is anybody’s guess, too, but for now things are chugging along just fine.
More YouTubers will shift over to quick video content in 2020 and heck, your nan might even be on there soon. We’ll all be making TikTok’s eventually… it’s just a matter of time.
I’m Charlie (He/Him), Deputy Editor and Senior Writer at Thred. I was previously the Editor full time at Thred before moving to Bristol in 2024. As a music and gaming enthusiast, I’m a nerd for pop culture. You can find me curating playlists, designing article headline images, and sipping cider on a Thursday. Follow me on LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.
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