TikTok, also known as Douyin (Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: Dǒuyīn; literally: "vibrating sound") in China, is a media app for creating and sharing short videos. Owned by ByteDance, the media app was launched as Duoyin in China in September 2016 and introduced to the overseas market as TikTok one year later.It is a leading short video platform in Asia, United States and has extended to other parts of the world. In 2018, the application gained popularity and became the most downloaded app in the U.S. in October 2018.
As of 2018, it's available in over 150 markets, and in 75 languages. The application allows users to create short videos of 15 seconds,as of July 2018, the app has achieved more than 500 million global users across 150 countries.
History
Douyin was launched by ByteDance in China in September 2016.Douyin was developed in 200 days, and within a year got 100 million users, with more than 1 billion videos viewed every day.While keeping the app title as Douyin in China, Douyin was branded as TikTok for the international market when it started to expand into other countries in September 2017. On 23 January 2018, the TikTok app ranked #1 among free mobile app downloads on app stores in Thailand and other countries.
TikTok has been downloaded about 80 million times in the United States, and 800 million times worldwide, according to data from mobile research firm Sensor Tower that excludes Android users in China. Celebrities including Jimmy Fallonand Tony Hawk have joined the app in November 2018.
On 9 November 2017, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, spent up to $1 billion to purchase musical.ly, a startup based in Shanghai with an office in Santa Monica, California, owning a popular social media platform targeting the US teenage market. Looking forward to leveraging the US digital platform’s young user base, TikTok merged with musical.ly on August 2nd, 2018 to create a larger video community, with existing accounts and data consolidated into one app, keeping the title TikTok.
As of 2018, TikTok is now available in over 150 markets, and in 75 languages.TikTok was downloaded more than 104 million times on Apple's App store during the full first half of 2018, according to data provided to CNBC by Sensor Tower, an app analytics platform based in San Francisco. It surpassed Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to become the world's most downloaded iOS app for that time period.
As a separate app from TikTok, Douyin is available from the developer's website and has maintained the same app title since its launch in September 2016.Part of its popularity is attributable to its marketing campaigns, launching several activities with Chinese celebrities to engage their fans' interest. For example, its marketing campaign in 2018 Spring Festival Gala alone brought an increase of 70 million daily active users. In February 2018, Douyin launched a partnership with Modern Sky to monetize music.
The TikTok mobile app allows users to watch musical clips, lip-sync to songs, shoot short videos and edit them with built-in special effects, filters and stickers. To create a music video with the app, users can choose background music from a wide variety of music genres including hip-hop, pop and electronic, and record a 15-second video before uploading it to share with others.
The app allows users to set their accounts as private, allowing only people they approve to view their content. Users can also allow either everyone or only their friends to send comments or messages to them, and “duet” with or “react” to their videos. The "duet" feature allows users to create a new video side by side with an existing video, while the "react" feature allows users to place a new video in a smaller frame that can be dragged around over an existing video.
Receptions
In June 2018, TikTok reached 500 million monthly active users worldwide and 150 million daily active users in China. It became the world's most downloaded app on Apple's App Store in the first half of 2018 with an estimated 104 million downloads, surpassing the downloads recorded by PUBG Mobile, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram in the same period.
The app has spawned numerous viral trends and internet celebrities around the world, propelled songs to fame, and is known to be popular among celebrities due to its immense popularity and social influence.
Censorship
Indonesia temporarily blocked the TikTok app on 3 July 2018 amid public concern about illegal contents such as pornography and blasphemy. The app was unblocked one week later after making various changes, including removing negative content, opening a government liaison office, and implementing age restrictions and security mechanisms.
Tencent's WeChat platform has been accused of blocking Douyin’s videos. In April 2018, Douyin sued Tencent and accused it of spreading false and damaging information on its WeChat platform, demanding RMB 1 million in compensation and an apology. In June 2018, Tencent filed a lawsuit against Toutiao and Douyin in a Beijing court, alleging they had repeatedly defamed Tencent with negative news and damaged its reputation, seeking a nominal sum of RMB 1 in compensation and a public apology. In response, Toutiao filed a complaint the following day against Tencent for allegedly unfair competition and asking for RMB 90 million in economic losses.
Credit From Youtube
Credit Text Wikipedia
