TikTok is a social media app that has become incredibly popular amongst content creators and consumers. The app initially allowed users to make 15-second videos shot on their smartphones or webcam. However, TikTok now allows users to create videos of up to 3 minutes long, using any device of their choosing. Since its inception, the platform has brought about the rise of many viral dances, songs, and other bizarre trends.
TikTok has now become such a powerful platform that it is the center of viral internet culture and has the power to propel songs, dances, and movies to global success. You may be wondering where this app came from because it really has taken the world by storm. TikTok has a rather interesting background story, as it is in fact a combination of multiple apps that were founded in different years. But, TikTok itself was officially launched in the year 2018 when ByteDance purchased Musical.ly and merged their apps to create TikTok.
The History of TikTok
TikTok may be a more recent app, but it certainly rivals all other mainstream social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. Although the platform was once disregarded for being a silly app for children, many celebrities have been created by the app’s most popular creators. TikTok has certainly had a huge impact on the way people consume and enjoy entertainment, even with its brief history. Let’s take a deep dive into the inception of it and its overall journey since then.
2014
To truly understand the makings of TikTok we have to take it back to the year 2014. Many of the features that TikTok is famous for today come from an app called Musical.ly which was launched in August 2014 by a group of friends. The app allowed users to create short videos lip-syncing to their favorite songs, and interact with other users through trending sounds and hashtags.
2016
In 2016 a Chinese company called ByteDance launched an app similar to Musical.ly but theirs was named Douyin. The app did extremely well, reaching 100 million downloads in just a year and over a billion videos viewed every day. However, the success of Douyin was not enough for ByteDance, the company wanted to explore international markets, and so the TikTok seed was planted.
2017
By the year 2017 ByteDance had become an even bigger tech giant with their app Douyin having done so well since it first launched in 2016. With the goal of reaching international audiences, ByteDance spent $1 billion in 2017 to acquire Musical.ly from its original creators. So the company was now in possession of two apps that were very similar in their function.
2018
This is the year that TikTok was officially launched when ByteDance combined their app Douyin with their new acquisition Musical.ly to create the TikTok we know and love today. The new app was first released in China but has since expanded to over 150 countries worldwide. All the existing accounts on Musical.ly were transferred to the TikTok platform along with all of the account information. All of Musical.ly’s iconic features like creating short videos and sharing audio between videos also remained and in fact remain till the present day.
2019
By now the app was gaining global popularity and hit 1 billion downloads in February 2019. The combination of Musical.ly and ByteDances’ Douyin was proving to be a great success with the company raking in $80 million from global in-app purchases. TikTok also began expanding its global footprint by opening new offices in Tokyo, Moscow, Mumbai, and Seoul. 2019 is also the same year that TikTok began running display ads for other companies. Businesses could opt to pay to promote their ads or simply join the app and start creating like other users.
2020
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, TikTok began to grow exponentially as more people turned to social media networks for entertainment. This led to an increased number of content creators on the app who were able to make money through brand deals and similar endeavors, but they could not still directly monetize video views. So TikTok came up with a Creator Fund of $200 million to help support growing creators on the app. The Creator Fund was also developed to help identify new talent and attract more users to the app.
TikTok Today
Today TikTok is undoubtedly one of the world’s biggest and most popular social media apps available. The app can now be accessed in over 150 countries and 75 different languages. TikTok also boasts 2.5 billion downloads globally and 1 billion monthly users making it arguably the most popular app of its time.
Conclusion
With TikTok now set to be worth over $50 billion, it’s easy to see why competitors are feeling the urge to act and create similar features like Instagram Reels and YouTube shorts. However, these other mimics fail to triumph TikTok’s algorithm which allows all creators to grow organic audiences and views on their videos.
