Nearly everyone has at least heard of TikTok. The platform has consistently grown since its launch in 2016 and has had substantial growth in 2020 since quarantine started. Whoever avoided creating an account finally did.

So, what is TikTok?

TikTok is a Chinese app that launched in 2016. It is the equivalent to Musical.ly, a Chinese app that launched in 2014 and was later acquired by ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok. In 2018 the two apps merged and so accounts that were created in Musical.ly migrated to TikTok. Currently, it has around 800 million active users worldwide, and its been downloaded over 2 billion times. About 41% of its users are around 14 to 20 years old and the average time a user spends on TikTok is 54 minutes per day.


From 2019 to 2020 TikTok increased U.S downloads by 62%. Since 2018 TikTok is placed among the top 4 global apps. https://mediakix.com/blog/tik-tok-user-growth-infographic/#:~:text=1.,during%20the%20entire%202018%20year.

It became one of the most popular apps attracting celebrities and creating new artists. The app started as a platform to share creative content in the form of 30-second-long videos. Originally the videos you would encounter were of users lip-syncing to songs and dancing creating “amateur music videos”. Later on, the amount of content grew exponentially. Now some users create dances for different songs and others create funny audios to use for storytelling. You can find videos about fashion tips, decor, do-it-yourself, recipes, travel tips, life hacks, motivation and, so many other trends and memes. The platform is also used to educate people on different topics like the LGBTQ+ community, the Black Lives Matter movement, feminism and, body positivity. Even doctors got into the platform to talk about sex ed, eating habits and COVID-19. You can find almost any video you can think of on TikTok.

@chazsmith

You do NOT wanna know how many times I tried this, just don’t let it flop lol #fyp #foryou #foryoupage

♬ original sound – Chaz Smith
https://www.tiktok.com/@karinaarkkie/video/6867013921803357445?_d=secCgsIARCbDRgBIAMoARI%2BCjz%2Fa1z%2BcuSIui%2Bfp7wUbnGsAbQ16NsI%2FnDQGeZn4%2FCm%2FHfRA4cFaHjARElv6mJptvYb3bf6pLtLrpy0FuwaAA%3D%3D&language=en&preview_pb=0&share_item_id=6867013921803357445&share_link_id=ED8FB92E-AE3D-4026-A576-92EB07B3AA8B&timestamp=1599432344&tt_from=whatsapp&u_code=0&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=whatsapp&source=h5_m

Is TikTok taking over other social media platforms?

Lately, you can find a video of TikTok in almost any other platform. For example, on YouTube, a lot of creators starting making videos about the app. You can find a lot of pages on Facebook and Instagram entirely dedicated to posting videos of TikTok. Instagram added a new feature called “reels” that has the same function. There even were news reports concerning TikTok and the controversy around the app. Here I am writing a blog post about TikTok so I think it’s safe to say TikTok is taking over social media.

Why do some people love it and others hate it?

Users love it because TikTok is a great “new” source of entertainment. The videos are short, fun and trendy. It has a lot of variety in its content, it also has some useful information and its algorithm is overall really good. There’s a lot of users that didn’t create an account sooner because of the cringe-worth content and because it’s addictive so it can be a big waste of time, but those are minor issues than can be solved.

And then some people absolutely hate the app because like any other thing nowadays, TikTok has been involved in a lot of controversy. First of all, users have reported that the app might be “racist”. Most of the famous TikTokers are non POC and rely solely on looks.  Another issue the app has revolves around a livestream of a kid taking his own life. The company did not handle the situation well resulting in the livestream going on for about an hour and a half. They also failed to call the police for three hours but did contact their PR department right after the video was posted (if you want more information about this click here). Last but not least you might have heard about the US government wanting to ban the app because it’s a way in which the Chinese government can spy on user information. This might be the main reason why people hate it.

TikTok is fun, sometimes cringe and even addictive. Like any other form of social media out there the app can be toxic but also a way to learn new things or just a source of entertainment. It’s up to each user to decide how much the app impacts their lives. TikTok was able to grow at such a fast pace because the app itself is not that big of a threat (considering many other apps have an incredible amount of access to personal information), a fun way for people to connect and an easy way to create content and have fun with it.