TikTok: The New Facebook
What is TikTok?
In layman terms, TikTok is a social media app used to create and share videos (Tillman). It originally started out as a way to share music and dance moves but has branched out into much more. Now, as long your video fits into the 3 minute time frame allotted for you, the options are limitless. You can find anything on TikTok from the latest dances to learn, DIY videos, gaming videos, or even just funny videos. That’s why it’s popularity has skyrocketed. There’s videos for anybody and everybody to enjoy.
How popular is TikTok?
TikTok has quickly grown into the most popular social media app on the market. It was downloaded 693 million times in 2019 and 850 million times in 2020. This is incredibly impressive considering the fact it’s banned in several countries such as India which would naturally have a huge market for it. A large reason for its growth in popularity had to do with the pandemic. When everybody was quarantined into their home at the beginning of the pandemic, they were all looking for something to do. TikTok is such an easy and mindless app that you can just sit there for hours and be entertained. That’s what makes TikTok as popular as it is today. The mindlessness of it.
TikTok Key Statistics:
TikTok generated an estimated $1.9 billion revenue in 2020, a 457% increase year-on-year
TikTok had 837 million monthly active users in Q2 2020 and is expected to reach 1 billion by Q4 2020
In China, TikTok is accessed by over 600 million users daily
TikTok has been downloaded over three billion times
The Future of TikTok
We can look at a question in the book to answer this. Who is your target market? This varies from things such as the motivation of your customers to the age range of people using your service. It’s important to factor in your target audience because they are obviously the ones that will be using your platform. TikTok is essentially the new Facebook in terms of growth. When Facebook first released, there was a growth in users like we’ve never seen, until now. They need to take advantage of this widespread growth and try to adapt and change to help cater the vast majority of non-users. Facebook found a way to have a simple enough interface that our parents and grandparents are able to use. My 91 year old grandmother is on Facebook nearly everyday and that’s saying something. I’m not saying that TikTok needs to cater to older generations but maybe the opposite. If they can find a way to have a kid-friendly portion of the app, I’m sure their usage would skyrocket even more. I have a niece and nephew that love TikTok but always seem to be scrolling into a video they shouldn’t see, so they’re no longer allowed to go on it.
References:
“Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion”
https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/146960-what-is-tiktok-the-musical-ly-successor-explained
.https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-future-facebook/