Tiktok is famous for encouraging people to upload recordings of themselves singing, dancing, and talking and share these videos all over the world.
How did this app spring up, suddenly go viral, and become bigger than all its predecessors and competitors though?
Here are ten titbits about TikTok:
1. TikTok was the most downloaded app anywhere in the world in 2020
Stuck indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people turned to TikTok for entertainment and downloaded the app almost 115 million times in March 2020 alone. This set a new record for the most the app has ever achieved in a single month.
2. TikTok has a different name in its country of origin
The original TikTok app was called Douyin and was created in China in 2016 by a company called Bytedance. It attracts a slightly older demographic than the identical app Bytedance launched worldwide the next year with the name changed to TikTok.
3. Over 40% of TikTok users are 16-24 years old
TikTok was developed with a young audience in mind. Users express themselves via lip-syncing, acting, dressing up, dancing, and singing.
A 2019 survey showed that 41% of its users were between 16 and 24. As an effective and fast moving form of self-expression, it is no surprise that TikTok attracts a young audience.
4. TikTok’s ties to Musical.ly
Before there was TikTok, there was Musical.ly which was launched in 2014. Users could upload short videos of themselves lip-syncing and being humorous.
However, on November 9, 2017, Musical.ly was bought by TikTok’s founder, the Chinese company Bytedance, for $1 billion. The two merged on August 2, 2018, bringing TikTok and Musical.ly users together into one community. It is safe to say that TikTok reached its goal of taking over the market and attracting younger users. The app is available globally, except in China where Douyin is still used.
5. “You’re in Control”
In 2019, TikTok launched a campaign to remind users to take regular breaks from the app to drink water or get food. These “You’re in Control” advertisements encourage users to take breaks as many get so lost on the app that they forget to practice self-care.
6. TikTok block
In India alone, TikTok was downloaded over 611 million times in 2020.
That’s more than the total number of downloads in the US, which had 200 million downloads as of 2021.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology blocked the app from being used in India on June 29, 2020 however.
7. TikTok and time management
“You’re in Control” was not the first campaign to attempt to reduce users screen time.
In April 2019, a screen time management feature was introduced to encourage users to take breaks from continuously staring at their screens. This feature promoted “digital wellbeing” by allowing users to put time limits on their daily usage and was a response to studies into the effects of the app on mental health and brain development.
Research has shown that watching short videos on a loop frequently reduces attention spans. This effect is even more severe on a developing brain.
8. People spend an average of 52 minutes per day on TikTok
In 2019, Businessofapps published statistics that showed that most users spent 52 minutes on the app per day. They tended to open it eight times a day and spend 6-7 minutes on it each time.
That totals almost an hour a day spent either browsing the enormous amount of content already present or creating and uploading videos.
When put up against other social media platforms, this is an average amount of time. Instagram users, for instance, spend roughly 53 minutes a day on the app.
9. 90% of TikTok users open the app multiple times a day
TikTok is among only 25% of apps whose users access it on a daily basis. Three quarters of all apps downloaded are used once and then never opened again.
10. What TikTok is worth
By the end of 2018, TikTok was worth $7.4 billion. A year later, it had reached $17 billion – more than doubling its annual revenue.
By 2020, TikTok was the world’s most valuable privately-owned company with a worth of $75 billion. Besides being a profitable app, a TikTok star can earn anything between $50,000 and 150,000 per year.
The creators of TikTok have designed a somewhat addictive platform and targeted the younger generation. It is one of the world’s most popular and frequently used social media platforms. It is a place where teens can express themselves creatively to the whole world from the comfort of their own homes.