Tech

8 Facts About Tik Tok, The Short-Form Videos That Are Seen Often in Facebook

2018-10-07 , 1:37 pm

Last Updated on 2018-12-24 , 3:08 pm

Chances are, if you go to Facebook now and just scroll for a few seconds, you’ll see a short video like this:

It’s obvious that the video is from China, and with Facebook being banned in China, it’s most likely re-uploaded by someone else.

But scroll more and you’ll start to notice a trend.

The girls are gorgeous.

Okay, maybe not that but you’ll see that this logo is everywhere.

Ever wondered why?

Here are eight facts about Tik Tok – and it has nothing to do with the tikam we used to have in the past.

Video Trends in China

Before we move on to what Tik Tok is, we need to understand the trend over in China first.

Unlike the trend in Singapore whereby short viral food videos would gain thousands of shares in Facebook, China is different: live-streaming used to be the trend. People would spend hours watching others doing their daily routines (seriously), and these “influencers” become millionaires by just live-streaming their lives.

Fast-forward to 2018, and people in China are now watching another kind of videos: short, IG-story-style videos.

And this is when Tik Tok comes into play

What is Tik Tok?

Tik Tok, also known as Douyin (抖音) in China, is like Instagram but with its focus on short-form videos. It’s actually meant for music (video), but of course people are using it to create videos like this:

Anyone can create a video as there would be simple editing features in the app, much like Instagram.

But an app is essentially an app: what makes it so unique?

The Numbers

Launched in 2016, the app has since grown exponentially. In June 2018, it has 150 million daily active users just in China (also known as DAU, the metrics app developer usually uses to measure results).

In comparison, Facebook has DAU of 185 million DAUs in the US.

In the first half of 2018, it has been downloaded over 104 million times.

And in the Google Play Store, Tik Tok has well over 100 million downloads so far.

Crazy much, no?

It’s No Longer Just a China App

We might think that it’s a China app as many of the videos we’ve seen are filmed in China, but no, it’s gone global. In fact, if you remember it as Tik Tok, it shows that it’s now popular everywhere, as it’s known as Douyin in China.

While it’s not as popular as Instagram or Facebook, Tik Tok is based in the US, with offices in London, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Jakarta, Mumbai, and Moscow.

Yah, I’m also shook to know that there’s a Tik Tok office in Singapore.

Popularized by Short Clips in Facebook

Let’s face it: with the noise online, and the millions of apps in the marketplace, it’s not easy for an app to stand out despite its innovative feature.

Many people know about Tik Tok through short video clips made in Tik Tok app posted in Facebook. The watermark would have made some people curious and therefore download the app to try for fun.

So, we all know that Internet Explorer is now used to download Google Chrome. Same thing for Facebook: it’s usually used to promote other platforms #justsaying #nowyouknowwhywealwaysaskyoudownloadourapp

Tik Tok Bought Musical.ly

If you’re old enough, you would remember Musical.ly. Back then, it works almost similar to Tik Tok, and people either used Vine or Musical.ly.

Late last year, Tik Tok’s parent company, Bytedance, bought over Musical.ly for almost USD$1 billion and merged the two apps. With Musical.ly already having over tens of millions of downloads, the merger increased Tik Tok user base exponentially.

Okay, so now we know how popular the app is; but who’s responsible for the app?

ByteDance, the USD$75 Billion Company

ByteDance was founded by Yiming Zhang, a serial tech entrepreneur in China. His first venture, a search engine for flights and hotels, were acquired by TripAdvisor, and from then on he worked on other online business.

But before Tik Tok (or Douyin) went insanely popular, the company was busy creating and acquiring other short-form video apps. It’s almost like they’ve already known that this format would be the trend of the future, and well, their gamble paid off.

Across all its platforms, it has over 200 million daily active users.

Most Popular Tik Tok Videos

Okay, this is subjective but personally, this collection is pretty lit: