“At this point in time you’ve probably heard of TikTok. Just two years ago it took the world by storm and has since amassed a whopping 2.9 billion downloads. If you somehow haven’t heard of it yet, TikTok (or Douyin in China) is a short video app known for creating a platform for people to share videos accompanied by short music clips.. It typically markets to kids and teenagers, but has recently seen a massive growth in adult users since the beginning of quarantine.”
—milo trejo, 7th grade
At this point in time you’ve probably heard of TikTok. Just two years ago it took the world by storm and has since amassed a whopping 2.9 billion downloads. If you somehow haven’t heard of it yet, TikTok (or Douyin in China) is a short video app known for creating a platform for people to share videos accompanied by short music clips.. It typically markets to kids and teenagers, but has recently seen a massive growth in adult users since the beginning of quarantine.
With more time on their hands, many adults are turning to TikTok to fill a newly found gap of time. Clara Wieberg a 23 year old who has been on TikTok for only three weeks, stated, “I had a lot more free time on my hands and if I hadn’t been in quarantine I wouldn’t have downloaded TikTok.”
And while it’s true TikTok has seen an even bigger than usual growth during quarantine, some people have been here since the beginning. Leah Upton a 8th grader in Literary Arts at Oakland School for the Arts has been using the app since it was called Musical.ly. And she thinks TikTok has taken a turn for the worst. “Around the summer of 2018 and about, half way through 2019, viewers on TikTok liked and viewed the content that they enjoyed. The amount of followers that a person had didn’t really matter and it was easy for people with little followers to go viral. This all changed when the concept of hype was introduced. Charli Damelio was the first person to experience the Hype.”
An interviewee who wishes to remain anonymous wholeheartedly disagrees with Upton stating “I like TikTok because you can watch videos ranging from things such as funny videos to people telling their story about being sexually harassed. I just think it is an amazing platform and I wouldn’t change anything about it.”
Now at this point you’re probably wondering where did TikTok come from and what is behind its immense popularity. TikTok is a short video app based in Shanghai, China. It was founded in China in 2015 as ByteDance and became very popular and had 70 million downloads at its peak. In 2017 they opened themselves up to the U.S. market, and became popular, but not popular enough for them to keep it on the market. In early 2018 Bytedance saw the savior and the opportunity to make profit outside of America once again: Musical.ly.
Musical.ly is essentially a lighter, kid version of TikTok that was widely popular in the U.S. and other countries with over 100 million downloads. ByteDance had made enough money in the Chinese market to make Musical.ly also a Shanghai based company an offer they couldn’t refuse. On August 2, 2018 it was official Musical.ly was no more, just TikTok.
All in all TikTok is a fun app that has its good and bad sides just like everything else, but ends up being successful time and time again.
With more time on their hands, many adults are turning to TikTok to fill a newly found gap of time. Clara Wieberg a 23 year old who has been on TikTok for only three weeks, stated, “I had a lot more free time on my hands and if I hadn’t been in quarantine I wouldn’t have downloaded TikTok.”
And while it’s true TikTok has seen an even bigger than usual growth during quarantine, some people have been here since the beginning. Leah Upton a 8th grader in Literary Arts at Oakland School for the Arts has been using the app since it was called Musical.ly. And she thinks TikTok has taken a turn for the worst. “Around the summer of 2018 and about, half way through 2019, viewers on TikTok liked and viewed the content that they enjoyed. The amount of followers that a person had didn’t really matter and it was easy for people with little followers to go viral. This all changed when the concept of hype was introduced. Charli Damelio was the first person to experience the Hype.”
An interviewee who wishes to remain anonymous wholeheartedly disagrees with Upton stating “I like TikTok because you can watch videos ranging from things such as funny videos to people telling their story about being sexually harassed. I just think it is an amazing platform and I wouldn’t change anything about it.”
Now at this point you’re probably wondering where did TikTok come from and what is behind its immense popularity. TikTok is a short video app based in Shanghai, China. It was founded in China in 2015 as ByteDance and became very popular and had 70 million downloads at its peak. In 2017 they opened themselves up to the U.S. market, and became popular, but not popular enough for them to keep it on the market. In early 2018 Bytedance saw the savior and the opportunity to make profit outside of America once again: Musical.ly.
Musical.ly is essentially a lighter, kid version of TikTok that was widely popular in the U.S. and other countries with over 100 million downloads. ByteDance had made enough money in the Chinese market to make Musical.ly also a Shanghai based company an offer they couldn’t refuse. On August 2, 2018 it was official Musical.ly was no more, just TikTok.
All in all TikTok is a fun app that has its good and bad sides just like everything else, but ends up being successful time and time again.
