How TikTok Revolutionized Social Media

It’s time to drop your ego and join the app

If you’re an avid social media user, you’ve probably heard of TikTok by now. TikTok is a social media app that encompasses short-form, 15–60 seconds, videos about dance, comedy, pranks, education, challenges, and even cooking. Users can film, edit, and post all without leaving the app. When first opening the app, you are greeted with a tab at the bottom that contains a home, discover, post, inbox, and profile section. The home section includes two top tabs which are the “following” tab and the infamous “for you page.” The forefront of the app is sound and music-based. TikTok treats a sound somewhat like music. Any user can choose a sound on a video and have it in the background of their own video. All of these factors have created TikTok to be one of the fastest-growing social media apps.

TikTok was created back in 2017 when the app Musically was rebranded into TikTok. Musically was similar to TikTok, in which they both involved creating short-form videos, but Musically was more about lip singing instead of dancing.

The app became extremely popular at the end of 2019 and excelled during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The app was a perfect distraction from the reality of the world that we are still living in today. Many creators gained a massive following overnight and turned from a regular person making videos in their room, to making millions of dollars living in mansions.

I joined the app back in January 2020 and have been addicted ever since. It is so easy to spend hours and hours on the app without even realizing it. The app has made me laugh uncontrollably, try different challenges, and become invested in different TikTok creators.

How Do Videos Go Viral so Quickly?

TikTok videos are known to go extremely viral overnight.

Unlike other apps, most users look at videos on the “for you page.” The for you page is a designated explore page where many videos are put to be seen by others. This page has all kinds of users that create different genres of videos. The videos that you like, comment on, or share are the videos that TikTok will show you more of. Eventually, your for you page will be filled with videos that you can not get enough of.

The goal of a TikTok creator that wants to have a viral video is to be on the for you page. The creator can use different trending hashtags, trending sounds/ songs, or trending effects to get on the for you page. When the user is on the for you page these trending topics will help their video get pushed onto more people’s TikTok. The algorithm will then see that many people are interacting with the post and the views will keep going up.

Views, likes, comments, and even shares are all visible to anyone on the app. Once creators start to gain more views, they start to gain more followers. Many TikTok creators have even formed their own content houses. These houses are usually rented by TikTok creators with millions of followers. The benefit of living in a house with other content creators is they can network with each other and continue to grow their following. One of the most notable TikTok content houses did an interview with Today to explain more about how it works.

Celebrities and TikTok

Even though TikTok has the ability to make people famous overnight, more mainstream celebrities are taking advantage of the app. When the app started to become popular back in 2019, many artists would see their songs become a viral hit overnight thanks to people using it. TikTok creators would join in on dance trends to different songs.

Many record labels and management teams have seen the power that TikTok has when it comes to viral videos. When it comes to marketing a new product or song, TikTok has become an essential place to market on. Many creators have even done sponsored content where they create a dance to a new song the artist is going to release.

Tik Tok Creator Fund

In October 2020, TikTok launched their own fund to pay creators for their videos. It is different from other funds that pay creators because it does not pay based on ad revenue. Their main goal with the fund is to turn someone’s passion into a full-on career. The creator fund is calculated based on the number of views and engagement. TikTok has committed over $200 million to pay creators for their content over the next three years. Not everyone can join the creator fund. To be eligible, the user must be located in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, or Italy. Also, the user must be at least 18 years old, have 10,000 followers or more, have at least 10,000 views in the last 30 days, and create content that meets TikTok’s guidelines.

Other Social Media Apps are Replicating TikTok

With TikTok having a growing number of downlands and millions of people joining the app every day, many other social media apps became aware of their growth. At least for myself, I spend more time on TikTok than any other social media. Just within the past couple of months, you can notice other apps changing their platform. I think the most notable is Instagram.

Instagram has had some major changes within its app over the past couple of years. Many content creators become frustrated with the changes to the algorithm. Instagram’s new algorithm prioritizes the most engaging posts to the top while pushing the least relevant posts to the bottom. Many creators became frustrated that their posts were not being seen. Aside from this, Instagram created Reels. Reels are what some might say is Instagram’s version of TikTok. They are short-form videos with a similar layout as the for you page.

Why TikTok Was Almost Banned

During the Summer of 2020, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated that the government was considering banning TikTok due to a national security concern. TikTok is owned by a Chinese company and many believe the app allegedly collects information from users. TikTok has since denied the allegations. Trump gave China until mid-November 2020 to come up with a deal to sell TikTok to any well-known U.S. company. Many speculated that Walmart, Microsoft, or Oracle were in talks to purchase the app for well above 10 billion dollars. The deal was approved for Oracle and Walmart to take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations. On February 10th, 2021 The Wall Street Journal reported, the Oracle and Walmart TikTok deal was shelved by the Biden Administration. Once the deal is reopened it might look much different than what has been proposed last year.

The Future of TikTok

TikTok has really transformed how people use social media. They have created a new way for people to get discovered, a new way to market to people, and a new way for people to express themselves. TikTok’s future of their U.S. operations is still unknown but I hope for an outcome soon. As for the app itself, some reports state that the app will exceed 1 billion users in 2021. As long as TikTok is still allowed in the U.S., I think it will continue to change the way people use social media.