Triller vs. TikTok: Differences, Similarities, and Why You Need to Know About Both
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While different in many regards, both TikTok and Triller share a commonality in, perhaps, giving a glimpse as to where social media is heading — a strive towards more authenticity, creativity, and content creation through remixing.
If TikTok is the Disney+ of social media — the new and exciting platform — Triller can be seen as Apple TV+ — another competitor in an increasingly crowded industry, trying to join in on the action with the help of some major players. Disney+ has Baby Yoda and Frozen 2, TikTok has “rise and shine” and “Ok boomer”; Apple TV+ has Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carrell, Triller has The Weeknd, Marshmello, and Snoop Dogg. They’re similar products, yet go about their strategy in distinct ways. However, while different in many regards, both TikTok and Triller share a commonality in, perhaps, giving a glimpse as to where social media is heading — a strive towards more authenticity, creativity, and content creation through remixing. So what’s Triller? How does it differ from TikTok? And why should you consider using both?
What Is Triller
Triller was released in 2015 as an “AI-powered” video-editing app, started by app developers David Leiberman and Sammy Rubin (creators of Disney Frozen: Karaoke, among other apps), who later brought on award-winning music video director Colin Tilley (Kendrick Lamar, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, and more). Users can film multiple takes of themselves and using artificial intelligence, the app will automatically compile together the best clips to create a music video.
Here’s the initial app preview video:
Triller appears to have its sight set on working with the music industry, while TikTok seems to be gearing up to disrupt it.
Wait, Isn’t This The Same As TikTok?
No! Good question though, they’re similar. There are two main differences:
- Triller appears to have its sight set on working with the music industry, while TikTok seems to be gearing up to disrupt it. I say this for a few reasons: first, it was reported in November that ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, may be planning to launch its own streaming service. Second, while a user can listen to a full track on Triller, one can only listen to 15 seconds of a track on TikTok. Third, when creating a video within TikTok a user must use music on TikTok (most labels and indies have deals with the app, but not all distributors), when using Triller, a user can use music found within the app, or from their Apple Music or Spotify libraries. Finally, and this is purely based off my experience, the Triller algorithm seems to favour artist accounts when showing the user new videos, compared to the TikTok algorithm which displays videos more based off of interest and trending-nature.
- Each app fundamentally deploys artificial intelligence in a different manner. Triller focuses its AI capabilities on video-editing (it edits videos for the creator), while TikTok emphasizes its AI capability on personalized search (continuously tweaking how it serves content to the user, based off their view and engagement history).
Then there are a few minor differences:
- Editing Ability: As mentioned, Triller edits videos for the user, while TikTok has a plethora of editing capabilities and allows the creator to edit how they wish.
- Discover Pages: Triller organizes its Discover pages with Leaderboards, genres categorization, promoted campaigns, and top videos whereas TikTok displays trending hashtags, top videos, and promoted campaigns.
- Triller appears to focus more on hip-hop and EDM, while TikTok doesn’t appear to favor a specific genre. The challenges that are promoted on Triller’s Discover page are almost always from hip-hop artists.
Below is a handy chart I put together outlining some differences and similarities:
Why You Need To Know About Triller
Similar to TikTok, Triller is home to rising rap stars and established artists (Marshmello, The Weeknd, Post Malone, and more). The company recently closed a $28m funding round, led by Proxima Media, who is responsible for producing more than 200 films (including The Fast and the Furious, The Social Network, and many more). It also has significant new investors from the music industry, including artists — Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, Kendrick Lamar, managers — Gee Roberson (Co-CEO of The Blueprint Group), Moe Shalizi (founder of The Shalizi Group), Wassim Sal Slaiby (CEO of XO Records), and other notable industry execs. Triller has reported 500% month-over-month growth and currently has over 26.5 million active monthly users, competing with TikTok in the U.S, and more than 75 million total users. It’s a growing user-base and is clearly (at least based off their investors) working with the music industry to help make an engaging artist-fan social experience.
“Triller has unlocked the secrets to social streaming, by closing the loop between viral videos and music streams.” — Lauren Braun Diamont, Vice President of Content and Strategy at Triller
Return on Investment
As previously mentioned, users can stream full-length songs, save songs to their own playlists, and access Triller playlists. This has the potential to create a social ecosystem revolved around music, where user-generated videos actually have a direct impact on streams. For example CalBoy’s #EnvyMeChallenge helped his song “Envy Me” reach over 230 million streams on Spotify (his next most streamed track has just over 16 million). The track has 61.3K videos made using it on Triller and 21.2M views. While most of TikTok’s campaigns dwarf these numbers, the Triller videos, perhaps, represent a more significant metric, since a user can stream the song straight from Triller. Triller allows artists and publishers to receive full stream credit when a video goes viral, with streams counted directly on Triller.
“The label, artists, and publishers get credit and revenue from streams and the associated streaming fees. Unlike other platforms, Triller is dedicated to artist-centric growth and directly helps artists with their billboard charts by elevating their stream counts.” — Babby Sarnevesht, Executive Chairman of Triller and Partner in Proxima Media
So…What Does This All Mean? How Do You Get Started?
Only time will tell how these apps will play out and I have no doubt that another one will spring up in the next few years or an existing platform will create something new. But for now, I think all artists should get on the app, spend some time every day browsing videos, creating content, and engaging with others on the app. As with all new apps, experimentation and authenticity are key. One of the main reasons behind TikTok and Triller’s popularity is authenticity of the content. Videos are full of people dancing, smiling, and having a good time. So don’t stress — get creative, smile, and have fun.
Until the next crazy Gen-Z app,
Josh.
Update April 1 2020: Correction made regarding the founders of Triller. David Leiberman and Sammy Rubin founded the company, and later brought on Colin Tilley. The original article stated that all three founded the company together, which is incorrect.
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