TikTok, known in China as Douyin (Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: Dǒuyīn), is a video-sharing focused social networking service owned by Chinese company ByteDance.[4] The social media platform is used to make a variety of short-form videos, from genres like dance, comedy, and education, that have a duration from fifteen seconds to three minutes.[5][6][7] TikTok is an international version of Douyin, which was originally released in the Chinese market in September 2016.[8] Later, TikTok was launched in 2017 for iOS and Android in most markets outside of mainland China; however, it only became available worldwide after merging with another Chinese social media service, Musical.ly, on 2 August 2018.
TikTok and Douyin have almost the same user interface but no access to each other's content. Their servers are each based in the market where the respective app is available.[9] The two products are similar, but features are not identical. Douyin includes an in-video search feature that can search by people's face for more videos of them and other features such as buying, booking hotels and making geo-tagged reviews.[10] Since its launch in 2016, TikTok/Douyin rapidly gained popularity in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the United States, Turkey, Russia, and other parts of the world.[11][12] As of October 2020, TikTok surpassed over 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide.[13][14][15][16][17]
In May 2021, TikTok appointed Shou Zi Chew as their new CEO.[18] He assumes the position from interim CEO Vanessa Pappas, following the resignation of Kevin A. Mayer on 27 August 2020.[19][20][21] On 3 August 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the United States on 15 September if negotiations for the company to be bought by Microsoft or a different "very American" company failed.[22] On 6 August, Trump signed two executive orders banning U.S. "transactions" with TikTok and WeChat to its respective parent companies ByteDance and Tencent, set to take effect 45 days after the signing.[23] A planned ban of the app on 20 September 2020[24][25] was postponed by a week and then blocked by a federal judge.[26][27][28][29] President Biden revoked the ban in a new executive order in June 2021.[30] The app has been banned by the government of India since June 2020 along with 223[31] other Chinese apps in response to a border clash with China.[32] Pakistan banned TikTok citing "immoral" and "indecent" videos on 9 October 2020 but reversed its ban ten days later on 19 October 2020.[33][34][35] Then in March 2021, a Pakistani court ordered a new TikTok ban due to complaints over "indecent" content.[36]
Morning Consult ranked TikTok as the third fastest growing brand of 2020, after only Zoom and Peacock.[37]
History
Evolution
Douyin was launched by ByteDance in Beijing, China in September 2016, originally under the name A.me, before rebranding to Douyin (抖音) in December 2016.[38][39] ByteDance planned on Douyin expanding overseas. The founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, stated that "China is home to only one-fifth of Internet users globally. If we don’t expand on a global scale, we are bound to lose to peers eyeing the four-fifths. So, going global is a must."[40] Douyin was developed in 200 days and within a year had 100 million users, with more than one billion videos viewed every day.[41][42] TikTok was launched in the international market in September 2017.[43] On 23 January 2018, the TikTok app ranked No. 1 among free app downloads on app stores in Thailand and other countries.[44]
TikTok has been downloaded more than 130 million times in the United States, and has reached 2 billion downloads worldwide,[45][46] according to data from mobile research firm Sensor Tower that excludes Android users in China.[47] In the United States, many celebrities including Jimmy Fallon and Tony Hawk began using the application in 2018;[48][49] other celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Will Smith, and Justin Bieber joined TikTok as well and many other celebrities have followed.[50]
On 3 September 2019, TikTok and the U.S. National Football League (NFL) announced a multi-year partnership.[51] The agreement occurred just two days before the NFL's 100th season kick-off at the Soldier Field, where TikTok hosted activities for fans in honor of the deal. The partnership entails the launch of an official NFL TikTok account, which is to bring about new marketing opportunities such as sponsored videos and hashtag challenges. In July 2020, TikTok, excluding Douyin, reported close to 800 million monthly active users worldwide after less than four years of existence.[13]
Musical.ly merger
On 9 November 2017, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, spent up to U.S.$1 billion to purchase musical.ly, a startup headquartered in Shanghai with an overseas office in Santa Monica, California, U.S..[52][53] Musical.ly was a social media video platform that allowed users to create short lip-sync and comedy videos, initially released in August 2014. It was well known, especially to the younger audience. Looking forward to leveraging the U.S. digital platform's young user base, TikTok merged with musical.ly on 2 August 2018 to create a larger video community, with existing accounts and data consolidated into one app, keeping the title TikTok.[54] This ended musical.ly and made TikTok a worldwide app, excluding China, since China already has Douyin.[53][55][56]
Expansion in other markets
As of 2018, TikTok has been made available in over 150 markets, and in 75 languages.[57][58] TikTok was downloaded more than 104 million times on Apple's App store during the full first half of 2018, according to data provided to CNBC by Sensor Tower.
After merging with musical.ly in August, downloads increased and TikTok became the most downloaded app in the U.S. in October 2018, which musical.ly had done once before.[59][60] In February 2019, TikTok, together with Douyin, hit one billion downloads globally, excluding Android installs in China.[61] In 2019, media outlets cited TikTok as the 7th-most-downloaded mobile app of the decade, from 2010 to 2019.[62] It was also the most-downloaded app on Apple's App Store in 2018 and 2019, surpassing Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.[63][64] In September 2020, a deal was confirmed between ByteDance and Oracle in which the latter will serve as a partner to provide cloud hosting.[65][66] Walmart intends to invest in TikTok.[67] This deal would stall in 2021 as newly elected President Biden's Justice Department put a hold on the previous U.S. ban under President Trump.[68][69][70] In November 2020, TikTok signed a licensing deal with Sony Music.[71] In December 2020, Warner Music Group signed a licensing deal with TikTok.[72][73][74]
Douyin
As a separate app from TikTok, Douyin (抖音), officially known as Dǒuyīn duǎn shìpín (抖音短视频; lit. Douyin Short Video),[75] is primarily downloaded in China and has a slightly older audience than TikTok, as their user base ranges from children to middle-aged adults. The app uses two different types of verification, an influencer personal verification similar to that of TikTok and a business verification requiring a license and yearly fee. Business verified users could promote to a specific audience, which allows them to choose where they want their video to be seen, such as a specific physical location. Douyin also has its store, in which users can tag and advertise their products, and users can request to work with an influencer for brand deals.[76] Part of the app's popularity has been attributed to its marketing campaigns that launched several Chinese celebrities' activities to engage their fans' interest
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