Image credits: TIKTOK

TikTok is one of the most popular platforms for video creation and sharing today.

The charm of the application is quite inescapable. It is no longer just the teens who are flocking to the app but also adults who are finding the application to be quite appealing for streaming short videos. The Surprising fact is that the TikTok application was developed within a matter of 200 days, and just within a year of its launch, the app had over 100 million users posting and viewing content. It shows that the team had a very conducive working environment. Many Startup Ideas have the chance to transform itself and become successful like TikTok, provided it has a shared creative workspace where your dreams, Ideas can turn into reality.

Even though TikTok has been around only for a short while, it has one of the most inspiring success stories for a tech startup. Today, the application has more than 500 million active users worldwide, with the app having been downloaded more than 1.5 billion times from both the Play Store and the App Store. 

A Brief History Of TikTok

TikTok was not always the name of the application. It was launched as Douyin in China in September 2016.  Even at this time, many of the videos were getting a collective of 1 billion views per day. The app was officially rebranded as TikTok in September 2017 and launched in the international markets.

The parent company, Byte Dance, purchased Musical.ly for a whopping $1 billion on November 9, 2017. The two applications merged into one on August 2, 2018, and TikTok became one of the most popular social media platforms among US teenagers. Within a matter of months, the app reached its 1 billion downloads mark in February 2019 and hit the 1.5 billion downloads mark in October 2019.

Today, the TikTok application is available in more than 150 countries. It has become the most downloaded non-gaming application in the world today, surpassing Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram just within a short while of its existence. In the first quarter of 2019, TikTok had over 33 million downloads on the App Store, and this marked the fifth quarter when the app retained the top spot in the most downloads. The same quarter recorded the highest number of new users registering on the app at 188 million unique users.

However, when it comes to Android users, TikTok is the third most downloaded application, behind Facebook and WhatsApp Messenger.

What Makes TikTok Appealing?

When it comes to the success of a video curation platform, you need three things for its success. The first thing is that there should be enough viewers on the application, the second is that there should be creators creating content to watch, and the last is averters who bring in the revenue. Why Is TikTok Appealing To The Viewers?

Many factors make the application such an appeal to the viewers. These can be broken down as follows:

Short Video Duration: 

The videos that are available on TikTok are quite short. You do not have to take a massive chunk out of your routine to drown in the content. The most concise videos on the platform are for 15 seconds, and at most, they go up to 60 seconds. It is quite an important factor why the users prefer TikTok. 

They can take relevant content in a short time. Considering that we are all living in a fast-paced world, TikTok is quite a boon for people who love watching videos on the internet.

Relatable Content: 

People who are creating content for TikTok are not professionals. They are regular people who are recording everyday things with a touch of their creativity. All the content on the platform is easily doable for any use, which is why the viewers love it. 

The viewers consume the content on the platform and then think to themselves that it is quite easy to make a video themselves, and they turn into creators. This switch between creators and viewers sparkles a lot of ideas, which further boosts the creativity of the videos.

Entertainment: 

People all over the world love music and movies. The company has tie-ups with major music labels and production houses. It gives the users to lip-sync to the lyrics or dialogues. When the viewers see the familiarity of the words and the conversations, they long for the moment to go on since their interests are piqued. With the music playing in the background, the creators bring new moves to the dances, which makes the music all the more enjoyable. Brands like Guess, McDonald’s made use of it with the Hashtag Challenge

No Need To Sign Up: 

While all the other applications ask for your name and other details for your profile, TikTok does not do any of that. You do not have to sign up on the platform to watch the videos and enjoy everything that the application has to offer. This gives a sense of security to the viewers since they are sure that the app will have no personal information. You can get recommendations even if you have not signed up on the application based on your activity.

Brilliant AI Technology: 

As we mentioned before, the application gives you recommendations for videos to watch. They do this based on the videos that you have previously viewed, liked, or disliked, and the users of which you must watch the videos. This AI technology also tracks how long you watched a video before switching on to the next, giving the app a fair idea of what you will like the most. When you keep getting recommendations for good videos, you will automatically find the application to be more and more appealing with each passing day.

Why Is TikTok Appealing To The Creators?

Without the creators, the video-sharing platform will be empty. It is the main reason why the application has been made to curate to the needs and whims of the creators.

Zero Cost to Create Videos:

When it comes to creating videos on TikTok, you do not require a professional DSLR camera to shoot the video. You can record the video on your smartphone and then add the magic from the many filters and edits that are provided within the application. When done right, the end result is quite amazing.

Wide Options : 

the thing that is quite appealing to the creators is the presence of the wide variety of soundtracks to choose from. This freedom to choose the music for the videos without having to worry about copyright issues was something that was missing from YouTube and other video sharing platforms.

Easy Stardom and Fame:

one of the essential factors why there are so many creators flocking to TikTok is  Stardom, and almost anyone can become famous overnight without even realizing it. The videos on the platform get billions of views every single day, and with the right content and the proper use of hashtags, anyone can become an internet sensation on TikTok.

Inclusivity:

videos on TikTok requires creativity and not talent.

 If you have a unique idea for a short video, you might just have stepped on the road to internet fame. You do not have to go to acting school or music school and then wait for your rise to fame. All you have to do is come up with some creativity that sets you apart from the rest and then let the algorithm of TikTok do the magic.

Since the creators are not able to monetize their fame on TikTok right now, they choose to drop links to their profiles on other social media like YouTube or Instagram. The people who follow them on TikTok often end up following them on other social media, too, and this way, the creators can cash in on their fame.

Native Ads:

The strategy used by TikTok is the use of native ads where users have the choice to link your website, and the users can view the landing page, and one can use the option of skippable ads, and the analytics of the ad can be measured.

 Can note the time of engagement, Total views, unique impressions, and Views.

Generation of Local Content:

The huge Success of Tiktok is due to the Content generation in Local/Regional Languages. Which cannot be ignored? This option makes not just the Gen Z population but the other generation users to instantly connect with the app, which the other platforms could not manage as successful as TikTok. It made TikTok so famous in the more significant markets like India, China.

How Is TikTok Gaining New Advertisers Every day?

When it comes to social media advertising, companies all over the world are just looking for one thing, active users. It is where TikTok shines. The application has millions of active users every day.

The ever-expanding audience lies mainly in India, the USA, and China, three of the biggest markets in the international economy. It is why large corporations are turning to TikTok to advertise their products. With over 1.5 billion users, the application is quite an appealing resource waiting to be tapped.

Some Statistics To Ponder Over

Within just a couple of years, TikTok gained nearly 1.5 billion users. Of the total users, almost 500 million users are active each month worldwide, ranking it ninth among the social networking sites. It is ahead of the famous picture sharing application Snapchat.

41% of the users on TikTok are aged between 16 and 24 years, making it one of the most popular apps that are used by youngsters.

Nearly one-third of the total downloads of the application are from India. As of November 2019, Indian users had downloaded the app 467 million times.

An average user spends nearly 52 minutes on TikTok every day. TikTok ranks third in this context, after Facebook (58.5 minutes) and Instagram (53 minutes).

Nine out of ten people have admitted to returning to the application on a daily basis to view new videos or to rewatch old ones.

The videos on TikTok have a large viewership. The company reports that more than 1 billion videos are viewed on its platform on a daily basis.