Tik Tok, the Chinese social video network that conquers young people

Tik Tok, the Chinese social video network that conquers young people

With 500 million users, it seems to be the most popular music video app.

   Short but viral videos: choreographies, 'sketches', series dubbing and fonomímica of famous songs in short videos. All this is proliferating on the internet and has its origin in Tik Tok, the social network of videos that has come from China ready to lead the podium. And for the moment, especially among digital natives, it is achieving it.

It all started when in September 2016, ByteDance, the technology company of Zhang Yiming - one of the richest men in the world - launched the Chinese market Douyin (meaning musical vibration), an 'app' of short videos that had been developed in only 200 days.


   The bet was simple: a mix between Instagram and Snapchat that allowed to make short videos that could be put filters, effects and decorative 'stickers'. In addition, it could be used to do phonomics (music has a leading role in the application) or simulate dubbing. And everything, with only one hand.

In just one year, it garnered 100 million users and saw a billion videos, no more than 15 seconds, every day. In China they kept their original name ... But they decided to re-baptize for the international jump, with which Tik Tok was created.

Thus, at the end of 2017, ByteDance bought Musical.ly, which merged with Tik Tok in 2018 to take advantage of the social base of users in the United States. That was the final push for a great expansion that, perhaps, nobody would have expected initially: out of a drop of water was born an unstoppable digital tsunami.

In this way, Tik Tok became available in 150 countries and 75 languages ​​in 2018. That same year, it already had 500 million users. In fact, during the first quarter of that year recorded 45 million downloads in the Apple store. And more than 300 million did the same throughout the year on Google Play.


Leader in downloads
With such figures, it seems natural that Sensor Tower Tik Tok's 'Store Intelligence Data Digest' report would appear as the fourth most downloaded app in the world during the last four months of last year.

It is the same position it would occupy if only Google Play were taken into account, where it was only surpassed by WhatsApp , Messenger and Facebook, being above Instagram , YouTube, Netflix or Spotify, among others. However, in the list of iPhone is placed as a leader, above all others.

The platform is a leader among short video 'apps' in Asia, and its success, passing through the United States, has spread throughout the world.

In the 'Digital in 2019', published by We Are Social and Hootsuite, it is revealed that, for example, in Spain it is in the top 5.

In Latin America, its popularity is also growing day by day. And now there are 'tiktokers', the name given to the influencers of this social network, such as the Argentine Cande Copello: "My audience was from the United States, and now I have an audience from all of Latin America," he says.

In Spain, the queens of Tik Tok are Twin Melody (Aitana and Paula Etxeberria), Basque twins whose success on the platform has allowed them to publish singles or open a YouTube channel : "If you want to make your way in music, you have to be both in Tik Tok and YouTube, "said Aitana in an interview with 'Watmag'.

The main users and followers of this 'app' are the digital natives, both 'millennials' and, mainly, 'centennials' (generation Z): "Tik Tok is designed to dazzle adolescents," said to 'Efe' Ferran Lalueza , professor of Information and Communication Sciences of the Open University of Catalonia.

"The adult public looks at it with arched eyebrows," added the expert, who commented that "it is the first time that a Chinese social application triumphs among Western users."

If you want to make your way in music, you have to be in both Tik Tok and YouTube
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'Fresh and fun'
Lalueza also explained why: "It's new, fresh, fun, intuitive and very attractive to teenagers, who are the segment of the public that sets trends."

In addition, it may be the first of many other Asian platforms that come, then, according to this expert, "for the first time we have indications that an initiative developed for Eastern culture works successfully outside its environment, and this can open the door to that more Chinese platforms try to reach the western market. "

Is this fever something temporary or is Tik Tok here to stay? "Making predictions in the world of social networks is always very risky," says Lalueza in that regard.

For now, FacebookIt has already given a first warning when presenting Lasso, an 'app' of operation and characteristics very similar to those of the Asian titan.

The teacher stressed that "one of the challenges facing this social network is to translate this growth into money."

In this regard, the platform already includes advertisements. And it must be said that its parent company, ByteDance, is valued at more than 75,000 million dollars, a price higher than Uber, according to marketing4ecommerce.net. Uber was a leader in the list of the most valuable startups on the planet.

It is still early to know if this tsunami in the form of 'app' will lead to a permanent ocean. But one thing is already clear: at least, today is the fashion social network among young people.

It's new, fresh, fun, intuitive, and very attractive to teenagers, who are the trend-setting segment of the public

The new king of a multifaceted empire
With 35 years of age, Zhang Yiming is one of the 25 richest men in China. He is software engineer at the U. de Nankai and CEO of ByteDance, one of the largest content platforms in that country. It also has Toutiao, the most popular news 'app' in China, which has more than 700 million users and other entertainment 'apps'. Your company is on track to be valued at more than 75,000 million dollars.