This undermines the dominance of US companies on the global social media market. It’s the first social media platform based in China that commands unparalleled popularity in both Asian and Western markets.
Some may see TikTok as just another social media platform that will soon disappear, but it’s more than that. Thinking of taking up WeChat? Here's what you need to know Possibly the largest hit came earlier this year when US Federal Trade Commission fined TikTok a record-setting US$5.7 million (A$8.2 million) for collecting and storing the personal information of people under the age of 13 without obtaining parental consent (as required by law).Īs TikTok has come to the public’s attention, parents and commentators have increasingly expressed concerns regarding potential predatory behaviour, bullying and exposure to the age-inappropriate content on the app. In February 2019, India’s High court requested both Google and Apple remove TikTok from Indian app stores following accusations the platform was spreading pornographic and violent content. In 2018 the Indonesian government temporarily banned the app amid accusations it was disseminating pornography and blasphemy. In its early days TikTok managed to fly under the radar, but its rapid growth and growing user base has brought the app unwanted public scrutiny. While Musical.ly was more popular among global north, TikTok dominated the Asian market, positioning the newly merged app for a wider global audience reach. In other words, overnight the Musical.ly user database became the TikTok user database. While the merger brought some new features, the process was virtually undetectable to users, who kept their accounts and all preexisting content and followers. In 2018, ByteDance decided to merge Douyin and Musical.ly under the name TikTok. At the time, Douyin was not well known outside of China. But it did own a short-video sharing platform branded as Douyin. When it acquired Musical.ly, ByteDance was mostly focused on news and was largely absent from social media landscape. We have seen similar scenarios before, when a successful start-up is acquired by a bigger player on the market. This led to its acquisition by the Chinese media giant ByteDance for US$1 billion. During 20, Musical.ly, a social media start-up from China, was trending among most downloaded apps on both Apple and Google’s app stores. The user base is the most valuable asset of any social media platform. How Tencent became the world's most valuable social network firm – with barely any advertising In fact, the app’s infrastructure largely resembles Instagram. In other words, TikTok meets all elements of a social networking site.
They can follow each other (reciprocity not required), like and comment on videos, and send direct messages to each other. TikTok allows users to follow and interact with “public” profiles. While TikTok still bills itself a “community of global creators”, it’s more than just a toy for children. In this way, users are incentivised to spend more time interacting together on the app. “BFFs” individually record their videos of the same song, which the app then combines into a duet. Musical.ly successfully engineered playfulness and performativity as its key features.įor example, its cleverly coined “best fan forever” feature mimics elements of popular teen culture allowing users to establish a special connection with features like duet videos. The app store description reads: “the world’s largest creative platform.”Ĭhildrens’ engagement with digital devices is often driven by their desire for creative expression, entertainment and social interaction. This tactic enabled Musical.ly to alleviate parental concerns associated with childrens’ use of social media. Author providedįrom the beginning, Musical.ly presented itself as a tool for creativity and play rather than a social media platform. Musical.ly’s description in app stores promoted it as a creative tool rather than a social media platform.
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