TikTok, formerly called Musical.ly, is an application that allows you to record short videos, usually with musical dubs, dances, clips, or humorous scenes. The app made it to the list of the most downloaded apps in 2022, with 130 million users, ahead of Instagram and Facebook.
Famous influencers on other social networks, such as Winderson Nunes, have already hit the 200,000 fans mark on TikTok.
The growth in popularity of the application occurred after it merged with the former Musical.ly. At that time, users were automatically migrated to the new platform. Besides, it began to receive new users as well. Keep reading this post and get to know what made TikTok so successful.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is an application for Android and iPhone (iOS) that focuses exclusively on recording and publishing short videos, which can be 15 to 60 seconds long, with dubbing as the main focus. People use a humorous tone or perform dance choreographies and do voiceovers to add more to the videos.
It is also possible to record videos without the dubbing feature, using the audio from the microphone. The application has a social network format, and users can follow each other's profiles, like, comment on, and share posts. To access, you can use e-mail or data from Facebook, Google, or Twitter.
Main features
To do the dubbing, the user can access TikTok's extensive catalog of national and international songs. The tracks are separated by category, between the most famous of the moment or by musical genre.
While viewing a video from a friend, the application also displays the name of the artist and the song used in that dubbing, so that the user also has access to it. Besides, while you record a video or even sharing a file from the gallery, you will able to mix surrounding sounds with a chosen track, to create an ideal one.
In addition to the songs, the app has several visual recording effects, such as face filters, ambient filters, and themed stickers. The app also allows the use of hashtags in the video captions. By tapping on a tag or searching it in the search field, videos related to that subject will be found.
TikTok and Musical.ly Got Merged
ByteDance bought Musical.ly in August 2021. At the present time is the mother organization of TikTok. The deal was around $1 billion. After the purchase, they merged both the platforms and the name TikTok came into play. It aimed to become the leading short video app with a worldwide reach. At the time of the merging, Musical.ly had just reached the 100 million monthly active users mark.
The developers of the new version have revamped the app and it gained new video editing features, with the aim of stimulating the creativity of the public through videos.
TikTok in numbers
Three months after the merging program, downloads of the application increased by 20%, causing TikTok to reach the 130 million user mark in the month of October. It surpassed famous social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Snapchat in the United States. By comparison, in the same period, Snapchat lost users and Twitter maintained its active base.
In China, a country where TikTok also stands out, almost 9 percent of all users devote their online time to the application's videos. More than a third of the 1.4 billion Chinese, the world's largest population, is active on TikTok. Known as Douyin in China, this app is preferred by people of all ages, including the elderly.
The service's heavy investment in advertising contributes to this rapid growth. ByteDance, the world's most valuable startup with a market value of $75 billion, has significantly increased spending on advertising the app, using different advertising mediums.
In light of this growth, Facebook is developing a direct competitor to TikTok. Called "Lasso", the app would be an independent continuation of Lyp Sync Live, which targets teenagers and would also allow them to record short videos and apply dubbing features.
TikTok: Interface
One of the great things about TikTok is undoubtedly the way the app is built. The "Discover" menu shows the most popular hashtags of the moment, where you can find videos from various people. So if you want your video to get a lot of hits, it is worth using one of them with content that has to do something with the subject.
Also, TikTok's home screen doesn't just show videos from people you follow. They also don't sort videos using the algorithm of interactions. Instead, they pick up videos that might interest you. It has nothing to do with the creator's popularity. This viewability helps amateur influencers a lot, which undoubtedly contributes to the interest of companies to advertise their products through the network.
Tiktok - Challenges
Another well-known attraction on TikTok is the constant challenges. They become popular precisely because of their simplified interface. These did not exist on other networks before the creation of TikTok. Although it's controversial, they leverage people to take advantage of new features on the platform.
TikTok: Sharing
Another interesting feature of TikTok is the sharing of the available content on the platform. To send a video to your friends, just click on the WhatsApp icon, located on the right side of the video. You can use messenger and other social networks such as Facebook (feed and Messenger), Instagram (feed and Stories), Snapchat, and email as well.
Tiktok: privacy and security
With an age rating of 13, the platform allows parents to control their children's access time when they think they are surfing beyond the limit.
In addition, users can also access their settings to make their account private, prevent TikTok from referring them to other users. Moreover, they can also control who comments on their videos, react to them, make duets with them, and even downloads their content.
The users should maintain the safety guidelines to use the platform. They don't allow posts that can encourage self-destructive behavior in children and teenagers. Videos with hate speech, nudity, bad language, and cyberbullying are forbidden. You can report them whenever necessary.
TikTok: Currencies
You can also use virtual coins to exchange for emojis and diamonds, which you can gift to other streamers. You can exchange them for real money, but you can only redeem 50% of the coins you send during lives in the app. The rest goes to TikTok itself, the Play Store, or for iOS, the App Store.
TikTok: Effects
TikTok also has a huge gallery of effects that can make videos more interactive and fun. You can operate it directly from the application's camera. Include games, memes, music, makeup, and accessories. All are free.
TikTok: Developers
If you are already a fan of TikTok, you can join the app's developer team to test updates before other users do. This is the best way to stay up to date with new features that Tiktok periodically makes available during the testing phase of the app, and to show your opinion about each one. You can access the option directly from your settings.
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