Brief History of TikTok
TikTok was launched in September 2016 as Douyin in China by Chinese tech company ByteDance. It quickly gained popularity in China as a short form video sharing app. In 2017, ByteDance acquired musical.ly, a similar short form video app popular globally, and merged it with Douyin to create the TikTok app. TikTok was then launched internationally in September 2017 [1].
TikTok quickly became one of the most downloaded apps globally, accumulating over 500 million active users by mid-2018. By October 2018, it became the most downloaded app in the US [2]. As of 2022, TikTok has been downloaded over 3 billion times worldwide and continues to grow in popularity [3].
User Demographics
TikTok has a very young userbase, with the majority of its users under 30 years old. According to Backlinko, recent data from October 2023 shows that around 47.4% of TikTok users worldwide are under 30. The largest proportion (25%) of users in the United States are between the ages of 10 and 19.
TikTok is extremely popular among teenagers and young adults. As reported by Exploding Topics, over 50% of TikTok’s global audience is under the age of 34. The platform has become a ubiquitous part of youth culture and daily life for many in Generation Z.
Part of the appeal of TikTok for younger demographics is the ability to express creativity, find a sense of community, and be entertained in short bursts. The platform’s algorithmically customized “For You” feed surface Videos tailored to each user’s interests and engagement.
Types of Content
TikTok is best known for its short-form videos typically ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes long. The most popular types of content on the platform are focused on entertainment genres like lip-syncing, dancing, comedy, and displaying talents or skills.
Dance videos remain one of the most popular forms of content on TikTok. Users love creating fun dance challenges and showcasing their best moves to trending songs and audio clips. According to one report, over 40% of the most-viewed TikTok videos in March 2023 fell into the “dance” category (Source).
Lip-syncing videos where users mime songs or famous audio snippets are also massively popular on TikTok. These videos allow creativity in editing and humor. Comedy videos more broadly, especially sketch comedy and stand-up style videos, also gain huge traction. Talent-focused videos round out the major entertainment categories, with users highlighting skills like singing, parkour, magic tricks, art, and more.
While TikTok allows longer videos up to 10 minutes, its core emphasis is on catching viewer attention rapidly through very short, entertaining clips optimized for mobile viewing.
Creating and Sharing Videos
Creating and sharing videos on TikTok is a very user-friendly process designed to encourage participation. TikTok provides easy-to-use in-app editing tools to create and remix videos, making it simple even for newcomers to craft short, fun videos set to music or containing other content.1 Users have a vast library of trending songs and audio clips to choose from to include in their TikTok videos. The app makes it effortless to edit clips together, add filters and effects, and insert text. This ease of creation helps explain TikTok’s explosive growth.
TikTok also enables users to quickly gain a massive audience. With the right combination of music, memes, and clever content, everyday users can go viral and gain millions of views. Tapping into the latest trends and challenges gives videos a greater chance at getting picked up by the algorithm and pushed to a wide audience. The app’s duet and stitch features also let users piggyback off of existing viral videos. Overall, the design of TikTok serves to incentivize participation through ease of creation and potential of virality.
Challenges
TikTok is well-known for its viral hashtag challenges, where users create videos responding to a prompt and using a specific hashtag. These challenges often involve dancing, lip-syncing, comedy sketches, and more. One of the most popular early TikTok challenges was the #InMyFeelingsChallenge in 2018, where users danced to Drake’s song “In My Feelings.” Millions of videos were created and shared using the #InMyFeelingsChallenge hashtag. Some TikTok challenges have even resulted in injuries, as users attempt dangerous stunts and tricks in pursuit of going viral. But for the most part, challenges provide a way for creators to put their own spin on a common theme and gain wider exposure. If a challenge takes off, it can launch a user to TikTok fame seemingly overnight. According to EngageBay, some of the most popular TikTok challenges of all time include the Savage Challenge, Celeb Look-Alike Challenge, K-Pop Dance Challenge, and many more. Challenges help fuel engagement on the platform, though TikTok has had to steer users away from harmful challenges by banning hashtags.
Live Streaming
One of the most popular features of TikTok is the ability to broadcast live to your followers. This functionality is referred to as TikTok LIVE. With TikTok LIVE, creators can livestream a variety of content, including Q&As, tutorials, performances, and more1.
During a TikTok LIVE session, viewers can interact with the broadcaster in real-time by commenting and reacting. The broadcaster can respond to comments, answer questions from the audience, and interact with their viewers. LIVE streams allow for an engaging, two-way conversation between broadcaster and viewer2.
TikTok LIVE opens up creative possibilities for both creators and viewers. It allows creators to showcase their talents, share knowledge, or just hang out with their follower community. For viewers, it’s a chance to interact with their favorite creators and personalities in an authentic, unfiltered way.
Following and Interacting
One of the core social features of TikTok is the ability to follow other users and interact with their content. Users can follow friends, family, celebrities, influencers, brands, and more. TikTok’s algorithm is designed to show users content from accounts they follow as well as new accounts they may be interested in based on their activity.
Once a user follows an account, that account’s new videos will show up in their Following feed. This allows users to easily stay updated on content from their favorite creators. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users, making it easy for users to find and follow entertaining accounts that match their interests.
Users can interact with videos by liking, commenting, and sharing. Popular videos often have thousands of likes and comments from the community. The app also features a “Duet” option that allows users to create a split-screen video reacting to someone else’s clip, which enables engaging back-and-forth interactions.
Overall, TikTok’s emphasis on following and interacting sets it apart from other social media platforms. The seamless ability to discover new accounts and directly engage with creators is a major factor behind why the app has grown so rapidly.
Shopping Features
TikTok has introduced some unique shopping features to enable users to purchase products directly through the app. Two of the main ways TikTok facilitates shopping are through shoppable product links in videos and bios, and livestreamed shopping events with influencers.
Users can add shoppable links to their profile bios as well as embed links in their videos to products featured in the videos. Viewers can simply click these links to browse and purchase featured products without leaving the TikTok app. This provides a seamless shopping experience where users can discover and buy products just by watching videos. According to TikTok’s ads help center, adding shoppable links increases potential customers and sales (source).
TikTok has also pioneered livestreamed shopping with influencers who promote and sell products in real time during live videos. During these live shopping events, influencers showcase products, answer questions, and facilitate purchases through shoppable links. The live shopping format creates an engaging, interactive way for followers to discover and purchase featured products. TikTok highlights that live shopping enables sellers to drive sales, announce new products, and create exclusive experiences (source).
Advertising
TikTok offers businesses powerful advertising capabilities for reaching over 1 billion monthly active users on the platform.1 Advertisers can leverage a variety of advertising options including:
In-feed video ads similar to YouTube ads – Brands can run short video ads that appear between user content. These ads can be targeted by demographics, interests, behaviors, and more. In-feed video ads allow for full creative flexibility within TikTok’s casual, entertaining environment.
Brand partnerships with influencers – Given TikTok’s massive creator community, influencer marketing is a popular tactic. Brands collaborate with top creators to produce sponsored content that leverages influencers’ audiences and creativity. TikTok provides robust analytics on branded content performance.
In addition to standard advertising, TikTok enables innovative formats like branded effects and hashtags that allow brands to creatively engage the TikTok community. Overall, TikTok presents a major opportunity for businesses to reach a diverse, young audience in a natively entertaining video environment.
Criticisms
TikTok has faced criticism over concerns about data privacy and censorship. Governments like the US have considered banning TikTok over fears that user data could be shared with the Chinese government (https://www.nytimes.com/article/tiktok-ban.html). TikTok’s content moderation policies have also been accused of censoring topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, like protests in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of Uyghurs (https://www.tiktok.com/channel/controversial-topics?lang=en).
There are also concerns that TikTok can be addictive and harmful for young users. The app’s algorithm is designed to keep users engaged by recommending personalized content. This can lead to compulsive use, especially among teenagers. TikTok has introduced screen time management tools, but critics argue more needs to be done to protect minors.
