Tap That App is a monthly segment where we feature an app our editors think is cool.
Beijing-based tech company Bytedance has struck social media gold; a feat that hasn’t gone unnoticed in the world of tweets, snaps, posts – you name it.
TikTok, known in China as Douyin, is arguably the first Chinese app that has found success in overseas markets. Boasting over 500 million monthly active users (roughly 250 million users in China), the video sharing app is a fan-favorite among millennials from New York to Nanjing.
The short video trend dates back to 2012 when Vine was first launched. The six-second ‘Do it for the Vine’ vids were a hit with young crowds and the start of a major social trend. Two years later, Musical.ly, billed as a competitor to Vine, was released and grew a 100 million-plus user base within three years. In 2018, Bytedance acquired Musical.ly, running it as a standalone platform before slowly integrating it with TikTok. While TikTok serves overseas users and Douyin can only be downloaded in China, the two are virtually identical.
The app works like this: You can create your own content, generally short clips of something comical or worthwhile for other users to view. Not keen on posting videos of yourself? No worries. Simply surf the app for content, ranging from recent trending topics to some of the most bizarre things you’re likely to see all week.
More recently, TikTok has become the go-to platform for netizens looking to participate in the internet’s latest social media trends. With quirky challenges like the ‘Bottle Cap Challenge’ and the ‘Git Up Challenge’ dominating users’ video feeds, the app has created stars the same way YouTube and Instagram have catapulted people into entertainment careers.
TikTok is available for iOS and Android devices. Chinese version Douyin is available on all major app stores available in China.
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[Cover image via TikTok/Facebook]
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