TikTok is a social media platform that enables users to create, share, and discover short-form videos, typically ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. The platform is known for its easy-to-use editing tools, music and sound integration, and algorithm-driven content discovery, making it a hub for viral trends and creative expression.
TikTok was launched in September 2016 by the Chinese company ByteDance under the name Douyin for the Chinese market. In 2017, ByteDance released the app internationally as TikTok, and in 2018, it merged with another popular short-video app, Musical.ly, which significantly boosted its global user base. TikTok quickly gained popularity, especially among younger audiences, and has since become one of the most downloaded apps worldwide.
TikTok operates on an algorithm that recommends videos to users based on their interactions, such as likes, comments, shares, and watch time. The app’s “For You” page is the main feed where users discover content tailored to their interests. The platform offers various tools for video creation, including filters, effects, music tracks, and editing features, allowing users to produce engaging and creative content with ease.
As a marketer, TikTok offers a unique opportunity to reach a vast, engaged audience, especially among younger demographics. Brands can use TikTok by creating their own content, partnering with influencers, or running paid ad campaigns. To succeed on TikTok, marketers should focus on creating authentic, entertaining, and shareable content that aligns with current trends. Challenges, hashtag campaigns, and user-generated content are particularly effective strategies for increasing brand visibility and engagement on the platform.
Origin and History of TikTok
TikTok was originally launched as Douyin in September 2016 by the Chinese technology company ByteDance. The app was designed specifically for the Chinese market, providing a platform for users to create and share short-form videos. The founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, envisioned Douyin as a platform that would allow people to express themselves creatively in a fun and easy way.
Recognizing the potential for a global audience, ByteDance released Douyin internationally under the name TikTok in September 2017. To accelerate its growth outside of China, ByteDance acquired Musical.ly, a popular app among younger users in the United States and Europe, for approximately $1 billion in November 2017. Musical.ly, founded by Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang in 2014, was known for its lip-syncing videos and had a significant user base in Western markets.
On August 2, 2018, ByteDance merged TikTok with Musical.ly, integrating the user bases of both platforms under the TikTok name. This merger helped TikTok gain a strong foothold in Western markets, rapidly increasing its popularity and establishing it as a global phenomenon. Since then, TikTok has continued to grow, becoming one of the most downloaded apps worldwide and a major player in the social media landscape.
What was the Original Purpose of TikTok?
The original purpose of TikTok, when it was launched as Douyin in China, was to provide a platform where users could easily create and share short-form videos set to music. The app aimed to encourage creativity and self-expression, allowing users to produce entertaining and engaging content quickly. ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, designed the platform with user-friendly video editing tools and a wide selection of music tracks, making it accessible for people to create polished, shareable videos without requiring advanced technical skills.
TikTok was intended to be a fun and engaging social platform where users could showcase their talents, participate in trends, and connect with others through creative content. It was particularly aimed at younger audiences who enjoyed music and were interested in expressing themselves through short videos, which often featured dancing, lip-syncing, and other forms of visual storytelling.
Tiktok History Timeline
Why Use TikTok?
Using TikTok can be beneficial for several reasons, depending on your goals and interests. TikTok can be useful as an end-user for entertainment and creativity, as a creator to grow your reach and potentially go viral, as as a marketer or business owner for growing the awareness of a company.
- Entertainment and Creativity: TikTok is a hub for creative expression, where you can discover and share entertaining content. Whether you’re into dancing, comedy, cooking, or DIY projects, TikTok offers endless inspiration and a platform to showcase your talents.
- Viral Potential: TikTok’s algorithm is designed to surface content that resonates with viewers, making it possible for anyone to go viral. If you’re a content creator or looking to build an audience, TikTok offers a unique opportunity to reach a large and engaged user base quickly.
- Marketing and Business Growth: For businesses and marketers, TikTok is a powerful platform for reaching younger demographics. It allows brands to create authentic, relatable content, engage with customers in creative ways, and leverage viral trends to increase brand visibility and drive sales.
What is a TikTok Influencer?
A TikTok influencer is a user on the platform who has built a significant following and has the ability to influence their audience’s opinions, behaviors, and purchasing decisions. These influencers create content that resonates with their followers, often within specific niches like fashion, beauty, fitness, comedy, or education. Brands often collaborate with TikTok influencers to promote products or services, leveraging the influencer’s reach and credibility to engage with potential customers.
As of 2023, TikTok had over 1 billion monthly active users globally, making it a hotspot for influencer marketing. Influencers on TikTok have become essential for reaching younger audiences, particularly Gen Z.
TikTok influencers tend to have higher engagement rates compared to influencers on other platforms like Instagram or YouTube. On average, TikTok influencers see engagement rates of 5-10%, which is significantly higher than the 1-3% typically seen on other platforms.
Who Are the Top TikTok Influencers Today?
There are thousands of TikTok influencers active on the platform today, with followings ranging from 10,000 users (the so-called micro-influencers) to many 10’s of millions of followers. Some of the top influencers today are shown below. For a larger list, see our dedicated article on Popular Tiktok Influencers.
- Charli D’Amelio (@charlidamelio) – With over 150 million followers, Charli D’Amelio is best known for her dance videos and has been a dominant figure on TikTok since 2019. She quickly rose to fame with her choreographed dances, participating in popular challenges, and creating her own trends. Charli’s success on TikTok has led to various brand partnerships, a Hulu reality show, and the launch of her own product lines.
- Khaby Lame (@khaby.lame) – With over 160 million followers, Khaby Lame is known for his humorous reactions and silent skits where he mocks overly complicated life hacks with his signature deadpan expression.
- Bella Poarch (@bellapoarch) – With over 90 million followers, Bella Poarch gained fame with her viral lip-sync videos, particularly one set to the song “Sophie Aspin Send” by Millie B, which became one of the most liked videos on TikTok.
- Addison Rae (@addisonre) – With over 88 million followers, Addison Rae is another major TikTok star known for her dance videos and participation in popular trends. She has leveraged her TikTok fame into opportunities in Hollywood, including acting roles, music, and a significant partnership with brands like American Eagle and Spotify.
- Zach King (@zachking) – With over 75 million followers, Zach King is famous for his “magic vines” – short videos that use clever editing to create visual illusions. Zach’s content is highly creative and visually stunning, making him one of the most innovative creators on TikTok. His videos are widely shared across various platforms, contributing to his large following.
How to Grow a TikTok Account?
Growing a TikTok account requires a combination of creativity, consistency, and strategic engagement. Here are some key steps to help you expand your presence on the platform:
1. Create High-Quality Content
TikTok and other video engines are primarily user-engagement engines. This means that the more your audience clicks, watches, comments, and shares your content, the better you will do in the algorithm. In this context, “high quality content” is content that will resonate well with a specific niche of users. So the first step is to identify a niche for your content that both aligns with your interests or expertise and aligns with a significant cohort of users.
In addition, authenticity resonates well on TikTok. The easiest path forward if you are an independent creator is to create content that is truly a reflection of your personality or expertise.
2. Post Consistently
Posting regularly is crucial to satisfy your loyal audience, but also to satisfy TikTok’s algorithm. Aim to post daily or multiple times a week. Tiktok audiences are usually swiping everyday, so you want to be have content that’s visible to them on a daily basis.
While you post consistently, experiment with posting at different times of the day to determine when your audience is most active. There are available tools such as VidIQ that can recommend your optimal posting times.
3. Engage with Your Audience
Engage with your followers by replying to comments on your videos, both negative and positive. Engagement signals are a positive signal for the algorithm, so while nobody likes to deal with negative feedback, it can also be a tactic for growth.
Positive feedback helps to build community, trust, and encourages additional comments/engagement.
4. Optimize Your Content Meta Data
Incorporate relevant and trending hashtags to help your content reach a wider audience. Additionally, engaging video titles, and captions/descriptions can add context to your videos, optimize for TikTok’s video search engine.
5. Leverage TikTok’s Features
Utilizing TikTok’s features such as popular sounds, filters, and effects can help your videos align with current trends and reach a broader audience. Especially useful are the features of duets and stitch, which allow you to interact with other creators’ content, exposing your account to the audience of other popular accounts, and capitalizing on trending content.
6. Analyze Your Performance
Use TikTok’s analytics tools to track your video performance. Pay attention to what types of content perform best and adjust your strategy accordingly. Be flexible and willing to change your content strategy based on the insights you gather from your analytics.
TikTok’s algorithm is one of the most powerful user engagement algorithms in the world, which is the main reason it has achieved such astronomic success in a such a short period of time. Use this algorithm to measure how well your content engages with your audience.
7. Promote Your TikTok Account
Share your TikTok videos on other social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to attract followers from different networks.
Join TikTok communities or groups related to your niche to network with other creators and increase your visibility.
By following these 7 steps and maintaining a proactive and creative approach, you can effectively grow your TikTok account and build a loyal and engaged following.
TikTok vs. Youtube Shorts
TikTok and YouTube Shorts are two dominant platforms in the realm of short-form video content, each offering unique features and benefits.
TikTok launched in 2016 and quickly became a global sensation, particularly among younger audiences. The platform is known for its ability to propel even small creators to viral fame due to content recommendations tailored to individual user preferences.
YouTube Shorts, introduced in 2020, is YouTube’s answer to the growing popularity of short-form video. It leverages YouTube’s vast existing user base and integrates seamlessly with the platform’s long-form content ecosystem. This integration allows creators to use Shorts as a gateway to their longer videos.
TikTok vs. Instagram Reels
TikTok and Instagram Reels are two leading platforms for short-form video content, but they cater to slightly different audiences and offer distinct features. TikTok is renowned for its powerful algorithm that curates a personalized “For You” page for each user, showcasing content that aligns with their interests. This feature allows even new creators to gain rapid visibility and go viral, making TikTok a hub for creativity, trends, and viral challenges. The platform’s culture is built around spontaneous, engaging content that often encourages participation in trends, challenges, and duets, fostering a strong sense of community among its predominantly younger audience.
Instagram Reels, introduced in 2020 as a direct competitor to TikTok, is integrated within the broader Instagram app, leveraging Instagram’s existing user base. Reels allows users to create and share short videos with the same audience they connect with through photos and Stories, offering a more seamless experience for those already active on Instagram. While Reels shares many similarities with TikTok in terms of content creation tools and trends, it tends to appeal to users who prefer a more polished, curated aesthetic, which is characteristic of Instagram as a whole. For creators, Reels offers the advantage of integrating short-form videos into their existing Instagram strategy, potentially reaching a more diverse audience that includes both short-form video fans and traditional Instagram users.
Frequently Asked Questions About TikTok
See below for some frequently asked questions that people have about TikTok:
Is TikTok a private company?
Yes, TikTok is a private company owned by ByteDance, a privately-held Chinese technology company. ByteDance, founded by Zhang Yiming in 2012, retains ownership of TikTok, and as such, TikTok itself is not publicly traded on any stock exchange.
What Country Created Tiktok?
TikTok was created in China by the technology company ByteDance, which launched the app initially as Douyin for the Chinese market in September 2016.