Musical.ly was a popular short-form (15 second) video streaming and sharing app, with over 100 million users , as of August 2018. The app allowed users a multitude of music and music options. dialogue with which they could make funny and entertaining voiceovers and videos.
The app was widely popular among some content creators who made it to the hall of fame through their engaging content on Musical.ly. Users shared Musical.ly videos on social media platforms like Instagram , further increasing the app's popularity.
However, in August 2018, the app was acquired by a Chinese company, ByteDance, and its users were transferred to TikTok. All content and accounts present on Musical.ly were automatically transferred to the new TikTok app.
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What is the TikTok app? What you need to know about the new Musical.ly:
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a short-form video sharing app that allows users to create and share 15-second videos on any topic.
TikTok maintains a separate app for the Chinese market, known as Duyin, which has more than 300 million active users. The new app's logo is a combination of the Musical.ly and Duyin logos.
How TikTok is different from Musical.ly
The TikTok app is based on the same short-form video concept, but it's much broader and, unlike Musical.ly, it doesn't just focus on lip syncing to songs. It offers users a wide selection of sounds and song snippets, as well as the option to add special effects and filters. There is also an option to directly add videos created on your cell phone.
In September, TikTok added the reactions feature, which allows users to record their reactions to other videos and share. TikTok has also added a digital well-being feature that sends an alert when users spend more than two hours on the app.
The new app is being promoted as a video-sharing social network. Users can create a variety of videos, ranging from challenges, dance videos and magic tricks to funny videos. The main differentiating factor between Musical.ly and TikTok is that the latter has a much broader capacity for creating videos.
How the App Increased Popularity
Since its launch, the app's popularity has grown a lot. In October 2018, TikTok was the most downloaded photo and video app on the Apple store worldwide. The app has accumulated over 500 million active users, with the US being the most popular country in which it has been downloaded, with over 80 million downloads.
Some of the main reasons behind the rise in popularity of the TikTok app are:
Celebrity sponsorship
TikTok is liked and used by several celebrities, such as Jimmy Fallon, who have helped increase the app's popularity. The app has partnered with several celebrities from various regions, who promote the app to local audiences.
Jimmy Fallon's interest in the app started naturally, but was later capitalized on by the app through a paid partnership. In November 2018, Jimmy Fallon started a "challenge" section on his show and used TikTok as the platform for the challenge.
The presenter asked viewers to participate in the #TumbleweedChallenge and post videos on TikTok of themselves rolling like a tumbleweed, the famous "ball of hay" from the Old West. The TV presenter himself accepted the challenge of starting this trend.
@fallontonight Jimmy takes the #TumbleweedChallenge ! Show us your best tumbleweed! ♬ #TumbleweedChallenge - FallonTonight
The challenge went viral and gathered more than 8 thousand registrations and 10.4 million participations within a week.
The Tik Tok app also has partnerships with celebrities in other regions. When it was launched in Japan, the app brought together celebrities such as Kinoshita Yukina, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Watanabe Naomi. In Thailand, TikTok has collaborated with social media celebrity Kaykai Salaider and in India with Aashika Bhatia.
Celebrity partnerships have been a key tactic in TikTok's geographic expansion strategy. The app uses celebrities and influencers to move the platform and generate viral content. These celebrities not only post content on TikTok but also promote TikTok on other social media channels.
In the post below, for example, Indian celebrity Aashika Bhatia promoted the app on Instagram.
In addition to paid partnerships , the brand also benefits from popular social influencers and celebrities using the platform. These celebrities help attract your followers to TikTok.
Localized Content
Another determining factor in the popularity of the TikTok app is the fact that, despite being a global app, it has a strong focus on localized content. The app often runs local contests and challenges and captures local trends through the use of localized hashtags.
TikTok runs the "1 million auditions" contest in several countries separately. For each contest, participants are given themes to create videos and then the top video creators are awarded. This contest not only leads to the creation of thousands of local videos for each country where it is held, but it also helps TikTok creators gain recognition and followers.
One such contest, held in Russia in September 2018, gained 31,000 video entries and millions of views from TikTok users, which helped promote the app in the country.
The app also uses local trending hashtags to suggest topics for content creation for its users. This helps the app capitalize on local trends and generate viral content for the platform. For example, "Seaweed Dance" was a fun type of video that went viral in China. Tens of thousands of TikTok users have created a video on this topic.
TikTok also sends personalized recommendations to each of its users. This ensures that TikTok users are always up to date on the latest videos and never run out of ideas for video creation. Using these techniques, TikTok was able to achieve location on a global scale.
Easy content creation, sharing and viewing
The TikTop app has made creating and sharing videos simple. All users have to do is record anything and everything from their daily routines and publish them instantly. Due to the short format, neither the video creation nor the viewing process takes much time or effort.
Additionally, this short video content plays as soon as the user opens the app. The videos start playing one by one and the viewer gets lost in a sea of content with fun, funny and addictive videos. Due to this addictive nature of the type of content, it is very easy for people to keep watching random videos for hours.
How can brands leverage Tik Tok?
TikTok does not have space for traditional display ads nor is it in competition with other social media platforms. However, due to its rapid growth and rising popularity, many brands are now realizing the potential of TikTok as a marketing channel.
Several brands use techniques like TikTok challenges and contests to get users to generate brand-related content. Brands are also leveraging hashtags, more or less similar to other social media platforms, to promote their marketing campaigns on TikTok.
Take, for example, Guess's #InMyDenim campaign. On September 1, 2018, the Guess brand took over TikTok and invited all American TikTok users to the #InMyDenim hashtag challenge. The contest pushed users to create video content using jeans (of course) and the hashtag. This was the beginning of TikTok brand partnerships in the US.
Another way brands can use TikTok is by collaborating with TikTok celebrities to create brand-specific promotional content. This will be similar to any other influencer collaboration, but with the 15-second video format.
The future of Tik Tok
TikTok's current popularity is surprising, but it still doesn't guarantee that the app will reach the levels achieved by other social networks like Instagram and YouTube. Vine was an extremely popular video sharing platform that is completely out of the picture now. There are many other apps that quickly rose to fame and disappeared.
To maintain its current popularity, TikTok will need to innovate and find new ways to engage its user base. It will also have to make the platform more marketing-friendly for brands in order to establish the app as a social network that will stick.
With more and more brands looking to TikTok to further expand their social media marketing reach , the app is on the right track. If it manages to capitalize on brands' activities on the app, TikTok will certainly grow further and could even compete with other social media platforms.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, TikTok is a fun, funny and addictive app that has seen a surge in popularity over the past few months. The app also has the potential to become the next big marketing and social media platform. However, it remains to be seen how the app's creators harness this potential and maintain the app's current popularity.
What kind of TikTok content are you addicted to?
