TikTok is a social platform for sharing videos. Users can record, edit and share 15-second videos created with filters, music, animation, special effects and more. Like other social networks, users can follow, like and comment.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is the fourth largest social network in the world in a number of users, with 1.5 billion (monthly). It is very popular with teenagers, but it seems that the older generation is also starting to take an interest in this app.
The attraction of the tool is that anyone can become a content creator because it is very easy to use the application from creating the video to posting and the high degree of virality that a video can achieve.
Users do not necessarily need to post videos, they can just watch them. After all, most users just follow, watch and enjoy.
According to App Ape Lab 2018, a company that provides data and information about applications for mobile devices, 21.3% of the male users of TikTok are under 20 years of age and 18.6% of the female users of the platform are under 20 years old.
In summary, TikTok still represents about 3% of the total users of social networks over 18 years of age.
It is widely used by people between 16 and 24 years old. This age group represents 41% of the total user base. Unfortunately, the social network has not released much data yet, although it is safe to indicate that people aged 24 to 30 are another large part of its audience.
In fact, TikTok is not a novelty, as I explained earlier, it was merged with Musical.ly after being bought by the Chinese ByteDance. These two networks were very popular, only one of the more popular in Asia and the other in the Americas and Europe.
It is the summary of everything we have evolved so far on social networks: mobile-first, vertical videos, in short format, with a strong emphasis on music, humour, dance, daily life and trends.
Examples of Content on TikTok
Here is a list of what users most share over there.
- They record a video doing a specific dance for a certain song.
- They use a music clip to record a short video telling a joke.
- A short video telling something personal.
- Much of the content is humorous, just as it was with Vine. Other very popular content includes short skirts, lipsync, cooking tips and challenges.
- So with that in mind, think about TikTok for marketing if you have a young audience.
- While there is no doubt that “older” people will start using the service soon, their marketing resources are likely to be better spent elsewhere if they target that audience.
What is the origin of TikTok?
TikTok appeared in 2014, still under the name Musical.ly. Developed by a Chinese company, it was an application for people to post videos dubbing songs.
In 2017, the company was bought by fellow countryman ByteDance, who at the time had a similar app, called Douyin. After that, Musical.ly became TikTok, for international distribution, while Douyin continued to circulate among the Chinese.
In 2019, the TikTok app was downloaded 750 million times. Nearly a third of the population in India, the app’s main market, and the United States use TikTok.
Approximately 1 billion videos are viewed every 24 hours, according to consultancy Sensor Tower. This made the company’s annual revenue grow by an incredible 521%.
How does Tiktok work?
TikTok combined two trends: Musical.ly’s lipsync and the short, funny clips from Vine.
Musical.ly was a social network where people created and shared short lip sync videos (lipsync). Think of it as Karaoke in the digital age. Those who already had a profile on this network had their account automatically transferred to TikTok (this is my case).
If you didn’t know, here’s a summary of what people created there.
ByteDance bought Musical.ly in 2017 and incorporated it into TikTok in 2018.
Now to explain the other trend that I talked about, here are some examples from Vine. It was a social network for creating and sharing short videos. This service was discontinued in 2016.
How Content is Distributed on TikTok
At TikTok, you don’t need followers to go viral. You do not need influence, distribution or anything else.
You can record a 15-second video, upload it to a brand new account, and you’ll already get views, likes, comments and followers.
What sets TikTok apart from anything else you’ve tried is that it uses artificial intelligence to analyze your video.
How does this work?
- TikTok uses machine learning to assess the quality of each video uploaded. Although the specifics of the algorithm are not shared publicly, it most likely follows something like this:
- When you upload a video, it appears to a handful of users among the popular video stream.
- TikTok measures the percentage of your video watched by this initial group, as well as how many likes, comments and shares the video receives.
- The higher the percentage of completion of the video (watch until the end), and the greater the speed of likes, comments and shares, the more and more people will see your video.
Marketing at TikTok
You have a few marketing options on TikTok: influence marketing, user-generated content, or original content.
Influencer marketing is already important at TikTok.
From makeup to cooking videos, TikTok is full of people doing things. There are some influencers of TikTok in these segments with a large number of followers. These influencers have the audience they want to buy from, so it’s a good idea to partner with them. They can use the products or promote a particular brand.
One in three consumers trusts an influencer’s opinion more than what a brand says, so use that to your advantage.
Mostly, you don’t suffer from the negative implications of ads and don’t have to worry about creating the right audience, as with native videos in a company’s account.
You just need to work with your influencers to create a creative strategy that helps them to spark interest in the brand or product.
Play with Your Original Content
Creating your own content can be a powerful marketing strategy at TikTok. However, it will take much longer, it needs a lot of creativity and resources.
TikTok is largely based on viral content, so its content must also be viral. Otherwise, it will probably be ignored by TikTok users.
Challenges (Hashtag Challenges)
TikTok users respond very well to the challenges. There are usually several challenges at any time for TikTok users to participate.
The usual type of challenge for TikTok involves someone setting a challenge. In short, the idea is to encourage others on TikTok to create and share a specific type of video.
Top 8 Tiktokers around the world
If you are an influencer agency like So ■■■■, you inevitably dream of having these top influencers in your crew of TikTok ambassadors. Initially simple anonymous for the most part, these pros of social media management have become real phenomena on social networks thanks to their millions of followers. Mega communities offer enormous possibilities in terms of influencer marketing. After the ranking of the 10 most followed French influencers on Tik Tok, here are the top 10 of the biggest TikTok influencers in the world.
Charli d’amelio (@charlidamelio, 97.0 million subscribers)
First most followed person on TikTok, Charlie D’Amelio is only 16 years old but already has 97 million subscribers! Her journey started in June 2019 when she posted several videos of her dancing to viral songs on the tiktok platform. Immediate success! In less than a year, the young American rose to the top of the social network ranking. Since then, her notoriety on TikTok and her dancing skills have allowed her to appear with many celebrities as in the clips of Jennifer Lopez and Bebe Rexha.
Addison rae (@addisonre 67.4 million subscribers)
Second in the world ranking of mega influencers, Addison Rae started making videos on TikTok in July 2019. Since then, her number of followers has continued to climb. Dance, song, the 20-year-old “TikTok famous” knows how to do everything and her address book now well supplied should allow her to stay in the top of the social network for a long time to come.
Zach King (@zachking, 52.1 million subscribers)
Filmmaker and illusionist, Zach King first introduced his talents to the Vine platform. Today he unveils his videos full of special effects to more than 52 million TikTok subscribers, fascinated and fond of his visual magic tricks. A recipe that works since Zach King the aptly named occupies the top 3 of the most followed tiktokers in the world.
Loren Gray (@lorengray, 49.2 million subscribers)
As you surely know, the old TikTok was called Musical.ly and it is on this platform that Loren Gray started to share his talents as a singer. At only 18, she became a real star of social networks and knew how to keep her followers until on TikTok where she counts almost 50 million subscribers.
TikTok (@tiktok 48.5 million followers)
Small curiosity of the ranking, TikTok itself is in the top 10 of the most followed accounts. The official account of the application posts news intended for its users, quite simply. To be followed absolutely if you are a tiktoker worthy of the name.
Spencer X (@spencerx, 47.6 million followers)
Spencer Polanco Knight says Spencer X has made his place on Tik Tok with great beatbox hits. This 28-year-old New Yorker, quite discreet about his private life, has several collaborations with renowned artists. A talent that has succeeded in attracting many advertisers, ensuring it a comfortable income in the process.
Riyaz (@ riyaz.14, 43.5 million followers)
Actor, blogger, musician, dancer, Riyaz Aly knows how to do it all. With his inimitable style and his enormous sympathy capital, he seduced his subscribers by his Indian origins but also his creativity. In 2019, he received the TikTok best influencer award for all of his work. And all this at just 17 years old. A true top TikTok influencer!
Dixie D’Amelio (@dixiedamelio, 42.5 million subscribers)
In Amelio’s family, I would like the other girl. Yes, Dixie is the sister of Charli, the queen of TikTok with almost 100 million subscribers. It’s not easy to exist in the shadow of such a popular sister. However, this 19-year-old singer achieves nice hits on the platform as with her single “Be Happy”. Over 40 million followers, applaud!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
1. How to make money with TikTok?
Popular users, with more than 1000 followers, can stream live on TikTok. And your followers can present them with virtual coins called “Rubies”, which are purchased in the app itself.
When the life is closed, the user is left with 50% of the coins received and must exchange them for diamonds, and then exchange them (again) for real money. The rest of the coins are reverted in cash to TikTok, and to the App Store and Google Play stores.
To boost the app’s popularity in Brazil, the company decided to give cash prizes to users who recommend TikTok to others.
To participate, you receive a code that must be shared with your friends and followers - as many as you want. When they download the app, they must open the campaign page and enter their code. And then they must use the app for at least 10 days to receive the award. The amount you receive can reach R $ 500.
There are also other ways to make money on TikTok, such as sharing content, posting videos or simply watching them. In part, responsible for popularity.
2. Is TikTok safe for children?
It is known that 66% of general TikTok users are under 30 years old. Among monthly active users, 60% are between 16 and 24 years old. Therefore, they are children and young people producing and consuming most of the content published on the platform.
Concern for the little ones made TikTok in the USA launch a version aimed at the audience under 12 years old. There, children can produce videos, but they cannot publish them on a public profile on the Internet - one of the concerns of parents is precisely to leave their children exposed to malicious users.
TikTok avoided promoting videos of “ugly” and “poor” users on For You
In addition, there is a curatorship that selects content suitable for minors.
3. What are TikTok’s competitors?
The YouTube plans already face competition with TikTok, creating a space for the production and publication of short videos, entitled YouTube Shorts . Instagram included the Scenes feature in its Stories to offer new options for editing short videos on the platform.
Google, meanwhile, announced the launch of Tangi, for people to create and share tutorials on videos of up to 60 seconds. Facebook launched Lasso, also for dubbing and viral videos. The recipe is always short videos and music.
Chinese Kuaishou Technology launched Kwai, a short video app, with the support of Winderson Nunes and other influencers to leverage the Brazilian audience.
Nobody wants to be left behind by Tik Tok.
4. Who are the 2 most famous people on TikTok?
On TikTok, the two most popular personalities are American, according to Guinness World Records, the 2021 edition of which was published in early September. The two chosen are Charli d’Amelio, both crowned " most followed female personality " and "the first person to reach 50 million subscribers " on TikTok, and the illusionist Zach King.
Conclusion:
TikTok (iOS / Android) is a short 15-60 second video sharing tool, but it offers extensive editing resources. It is possible to include filters, subtitles, soundtracks, gifs, make press clippings and use creativity.
Just like on Instagram and Twitter, you can follow and interact with others’ profiles, enjoy posts, comment and even share on WhatsApp.
TikTok grew because of its appeal to virilization. Users create challenges, reproduce choreography, imitate famous people, create sketches that encourage the user to participate in the game, which attracts many young viewers.