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a few years ago, an app known as ‘vine’ introduced us to a completely new world of video content creation. six-second videos, where entire stories were told in just a few frames, allowed us to revisit the possibilities of what truly was meant by engaging video content. however, when the application was shut down, there was a void left in said short video content space. and it was only a matter of time till a new application filled that void.
tiktok rose to the occasion two years after, roughly following in the footsteps of what vine left behind. in an age where stories, snapchat and short video content was becoming the norm, tiktok was the crème fraiche. although a somewhat controversial reputation, tiktok soon took the world by storm to amass over 500 million downloads (and that figure is just playstore!) in less than a year.
if you’ve been spending time under a metaphorical or literal rock and have no idea what tiktok is, here’s a quick update. the app was formerly known as musical.ly, a platform dominated by young audiences lip-syncing to popular songs or dialogues. in august 2018, the app was bought by bytedance, a china-based company and merged with its app tiktok.
tiktok has been growing fast. according to the new york times, it made an estimated $3.5 million in the month of october 2018 alone, through virtual gifts and brand collaborations. the platform is now experimenting with ad campaigns and already has more than several brands and big names taking advantage of its audience.
tiktok is described as a short-form mobile video platform but comes with the additional makings of a social media community as well. creators can share videos between 15 and 60 seconds in length. a well-equipped editing overlay along with a massive music library, lets users create engaging, clever and comedic clips.
bytedance, tik tok’s parent company, already had ample social media experience, thanks to its own app ‘douyin’ in china. after acquiring musical.ly, the two platforms combined to form tiktok as we know today.
in china, the app still goes by its original name, douyin.
of course, prima facie, tiktok is all about user-generated content much like most social media platforms. but unlike most social media platforms, tiktok algorithms focus less around people users follow, and more around introducing users to new content.
case in point, the tiktok for you feed that shows users content it thinks they will like and makes adjustments based on their preferences over time.
a vast array of features make tiktok so entertaining and widely used by a massive international audience. a major pillar for the app’s success is its ease of access and simplicity of use. short, crisp and creative video content is central to tiktok’s experience. following are a few features central to tiktok’s experience.
videos – videos can be uploaded or created in-app with stop and start recording along with additional effects.
music – tiktok’s extensive music library is where the app stands apart. creators can add, discover and even remix songs and sounds.
editing – users can apply visual filters, time effects, split screens, transitions, stickers, gifs, emoji, and a horde of other effects.
virtual money – tiktok offers in-app purchases of coins, which users can buy to give to creators. prices for coins start at rs.96 for 100 and go up to rs. 9600 for 10,000.
verification – similiar to most other social media platforms, official accounts are given blue checkmarks. popular creators are also designated with orange checkmarks.
short answer? definitely.
tiktok has been experimenting this year with advertising and has been working on the prime methodologies to display these ads to users. tik tok’s website has a tab called “tiktok ads” where brands can sign up to begin advertising and campaigns on the widely popular app. this is especially more so imperative where brands have gen z (16 – 24-year-olds) as the target audience.
the list of brands already present on tiktok (at least in the form of advertising) is vast. nike, mountain dew, pepsi india and apple music are only a few of the names trying to get ahead of the curve. while tiktok has yet to unveil advertiser options to all of its international audiences, it has apparently been testing in-app ads since as early as january 2019.
besides in-app ads, branded hashtag challenges are a premiere marketing method unique to tiktok as a platform. case in point, mountain dew’s recent “dew flip challenge” which basically monetizes the “bottle flip challenge” trend quite efficiently, hitting the birds of awareness, engagement and leads, all with one stone.
influencer collaborations are also the way to go, with tiktok influencers roping in a large number of audiences with their quirky content. although the popular digital platform looks promising, much like cryptocurrency, its long term durability in the social media market is yet to be seen.