TikTok, the viral social media platform is currently the most popular app in the world, taking over video and social media giants like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Now before we dive into why TikTok is still trending in 2022, we first want to understand what makes TikTok so popular.
The video sharing platform was first introduced in 2016 which rapidly gained popularity and exceeded 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide since October 2020. The platform has an all in one built in system where creators can capture and edit videos, add on audio and other special effects into their video.
DouYin (currently known as TikTok), is an application developed by a Chinese company, ByteDance. It wasn’t able to penetrate outside of the Chinese market mainly because of China’s economic tensions and sensitive privacy laws with certain countries specifically, the United States of America.
Although TikTok then, wasn’t available to most countries, it managed to pull through by stating that all U.S. data is stored in the U.S. and therefore isn't subjected to Chinese law.
Having exposed to TikTok, users found out that:
- TikTok has a way better algorithm than most applications at discovering new content for individual users
- TikTok helps content creators with its in-app video editing functions
- TikTok makes it easy to browse and connect with influencers
- TikTok allows users to browse and buy products directly in the app
- TikTok targets audiences that share similar characteristics to an ad campaign
TikTok is great at finding out consumer’s wants and needs. They managed to build an app so powerful that it’s being used not only by daily users like you and I, but from content creators to professional businesses.
The app holds the longest spending time on social media, half an hour longer than social media giant, Instagram. This causes content creators, business and companies to flock over to TikTok to gain more traffic and awareness.
Social Media giants like Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and YouTube started picking up on TikTok’s functions, where they created Instagram/Facebook Reels and YouTube Shorts in response to their growing rival.
Even with these new functions from Meta and YouTube, TikTok is still as dominant as ever. Over 40% of content on Meta Reels and YouTube Shorts are either made or reposted from TikTok.
Social Media is always on a fast moving pace to create new ways or experience for both users and creators. Change is inevitable and TikTok has proven itself to the world that they are not afraid of change and are continuously embracing it. The fact that TikTok is leading the social media race is astounding, not to mention that the social media giants are too, following its path.
The way TikTok is positioned today, we can safely say that TikTok will still be of relevance and trending for the years to come.
