- TikTok, a video-sharing platform, might be the world’s fastest-growing social media app. It’s also, in our opinion, among the world’s most confusing—but we’ve got you.
- Though its users skew 24 years old and younger, celebrities including Reese Witherspoon and Jimmy Fallon are getting in on the trend.
- With millions of children flocking to the app, parental concerns include explicit language in the musical compilations and a potentially toxic environment that allows for negative and inappropriate comments. We have your privacy guide below.
Ask the person next to you to explain what TikTok is. We’ll wait…
Crickets? Even if you do happen to stumble upon someone who reads TechCrunch with regularity, you’re still likely to come away from the conversation more confused than when you started—with questions like What is it? Why is it so popular? Is it monetized? Is it safe? dancing in your head.
Below, we tackle all those questions and more, as TikTok, a new social media app that feels like a cross between Vine and Snapchat, is spreading like viral wildfire. And you’re going to want to stay ahead of it.
So, what in layman’s terms is TikTok?
TikTok is a Chinese-owned social video-sharing app. Users can shoot, edit, and share 15-second videos jazzed up with filters, music, animation, special effects, and more. Like its fellow social media apps, users can also follow, like, and comment on everything they see. TikTok can be used on iOS and Android operating systems. To put it plain and simple, TikTok is here to make social media fun again.
What makes TikTok different from every other social media app?
According to parent company ByteDance’s website, it’s “one of the first companies to launch mobile-first products powered by machine learning technology.” Further, it was founded in an effort “to combine the power of artificial intelligence with the growth of mobile internet to revolutionize the way people consume and receive information.”
Huh? Basically, through its use of various kinds of artificial intelligence—like using facial recognition for its filters and filling one’s feed with highly customized recommendations—the app is able to provide its users with exactly what they want and nothing they don’t want.
Who uses TikTok?
TikTok’s bulk users are 24 years old and younger. But it’s not just your kids and their friends who are getting in on the TikTok phenomenon. Celebrities like Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon are fully on board.
In a recent post on Witherspoon's Instagram account, she does what any good parent would do: She asks her 15-year-old son, Deacon Phillippe, to teach her about TikTok. “@deaconphillippe tries to teach me how to Tik Tok 😂 I think I nailed it,” the actress wrote. He kindly offers an explanation similar to the one we provided above, and moves on to teach his mom some moves, ultimately telling the camera, "This is so embarrassing."
Jimmy Fallon, the king of late-night viral videos, got in on the TikTok action by launching his own in-app challenge called #tumbleweedchallenge. To participate, TikTok users were tasked with creating their own video shorts of rolling on the ground like a tumbleweed as Western-themed music played in the background. Whether it got the results Fallon wanted or not, it resulted in a positive spike for the app.
Where did TikTok come from?
ByteDance, which has its headquarters in Beijing, bought a little lip-sync video platform called Musical.ly, which is based in Shanghai with offices in Santa Monica. In August 2018, Musical.ly was rebranded as TikTok, and then downloads of the app doubled worldwide.
Is TikTok here to stay?
Known as Douyin in China (where Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are all banned, by the way), TikTok grew to 400 million active monthly users last year. Just to keep that in perspective, that’s about three for every 10 people on the street. But it’s not just China who is taking note.
As for the addition of Western markets, TikTok now has more than half a billion monthly users worldwide, with nearly 80 million downloads in the United States. And here's another nugget of a stat: In the first half of 2018, it was the number one downloaded app in the iTunes App Store.
According to The Verge, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is now valued at more than $75 billion, bumping Uber to the curb and solidifying its spot as the world’s most valuable tech startup. And considering the global ambitions of ByteDance’s 35-year-old founder, Zhang Yiming (pictured above), it’s not slowing down anytime soon.
TikTok is going viral for the greater good.
It has memes, it has challenges, and though some challenges—“Karma’s a B*tch,” for instance—exist solely to just entertain, some of the platform’s content has gone viral for a good reason.
The ByteDance website lists a series of in-app challenges that have raised awareness and even generated monetary donations for charitable causes. #CreateforaCause, which invited creators to help raise funds for DoSomething.org, Best Friends Animal Society, and Oceana, ended up with $2 million to donate. Its efforts were recognized at the 2019 Engage for Good Conferene, where TikTok took home the Halo Awards' gold nod for Best Digital campaign.
Can you get famous on TikTok?
Yes, but consistency is key: Make enough videos that appeal to your followers, and internet fame is at your fingertips.
TikTok is only about two years old and its A-listers don't have nearly the following of YouTube sensations, but account owners surpassing the multimillion-followers mark include 18-year-old Baby Ariel, who has grown her presence since being the first to hit 20 million followers on Musical.ly, and the leader, Loren Grey, who tops out at more than 32 million followers.
At just 17, Grey has hosted her own Snapchat show, snagged social media recognition at the Teen Choice Awards and People’s Choice Awards, and recently released the single “Can't Do It.” Busy girl.
Can You make money on TikTok?
Yes. Although not in the same way, say, Instagram influencers make the big bucks. To monetize TikTok, one has to monetize their livestream. Users can attach their credit cards and buy emoji for their favorite live-streamers, who can then convert those emoji rewards back into cash.
As a parent, what should I be concerned about?
A mishmash of Vine, Snapchat, and karaoke, TikTok has one priority: fun. But with millions of children flocking to the app, there are privacy concerns parents should be aware of. Specifically, the musical compilations that use explicit lyrics open up a potentially toxic environment that allows for negative comments and feedback.
Enter: privacy settings that allow parents to stop certain users from interacting with the account, and even blocking comments they deem offensive or inappropriate. The best approach? Just keep those eyes and ears peeled.
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DeAnna Janes is a freelance writer and editor for a number of sites, including Harper’s BAZAAR, Tasting Table, Fast Company and Brit + Co, and is a passionate supporter of animal causes, copy savant, movie dork and reckless connoisseur of all holidays. A native Texan living in NYC since 2005, Janes has a degree in journalism from Texas A&M and got her start in media at US Weekly before moving on to O Magazine, and eventually becoming the entertainment editor of the once-loved, now-shuttered DailyCandy. She’s based on the Upper West Side.
