The time is ticking for Tik Tok…

6 min readMar 13, 2019

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This is the first in a series of platform analyses that I’ll be doing.

As a Product Innovation Strategist, clients often ask me to weigh in on if a technology platform adds value to their business and in what context. For me to formulate a point of view on these technologies, I need to do the work on understanding the origins, present, and future of said technology.

Tik Tok has been a point of conversation lately given its quick rise up the app store charts. Here are my findings and take on the platform. Enjoy!

Origins

Tik Tok is owned by ByteDance which also owns Toutiao (headlines) a popular news content app in China. The company started as a news recommendation engine to eventually deliver different types of content to users. ByteDance also created an app called Douyin focused on short form video content. Douyin launched in September 2016 in China exclusively.

In December of 2017, ByteDance acquired Musical.ly and combined platforms with Douyin to form TikTok. By October of 2018, Tik Tok was the most downloaded app in the US that month.

User Growth

TikTok was developed in 200 days, and within a year gained 100 million users, with more than 1 billion videos viewed every day. Today there are 80 million downloads in the US, 800 million worldwide. Celebrity endorsers include Jimmy Fallon and Tony Hawk.

User growth was mainly driven by the merger with Music.ly in November 2017 for $1 billion, Music.ly had about 100 million users at the time of the merger. The most followed TikTok users and profiles in the US are ported over from Music.ly.

User Experience (Viewing)

Content format on the platform is focused on 5–15 seconds videos with background audio (music or voice over tracks). Most of the content is created for humor like Vine, rather than for inspiration (Instagram), utility (YouTube) or conversation/engagement (Facebook/Twitter).

Content is organized in an algorithmic feed just like every other app. However, like YouTube, you don’t need an account to view content. Though you need an account to create content and personalize your feed. Unlike other video apps, there is no “play” or “pause” button on TikTok. Once you open the app, a video starts playing immediately. The company is really focused on content curation and considers itself AI company before a social network or a content hub.

User Experience (Creating)

Creating content on TikTok starts within the camera where you can add a sound — music soundtrack/audio voice over. There are effect buttons to add interactive AR filters like Snapchat. Filters include backgrounds, faces, Animojis, etc. You can also customize the playback speed of the video by slowing it down or speeding it up. There is a beauty mode that gives the user anime eyes.

User Base Demographics

Age — no data released from the company but probably mid-teens. Must be at least 13 to use.
Geo — Asia first, US second

Douyin stats:

Average user spends 20.5 mins per day on the app (roughly 82 videos a day)
Almost 50% of users are above 24 years old
60% are female
Over 60% have college degrees
Around 40% live in first- and second-tier cities

Virality — Why it works

Content format — highly engaging, short form, piggybacking off already popular music.
Content — silly, positive fun vibes are easy to share and be reposted. Videos reposted to other platforms are easily recognized as TikTok native (logo in top corner and aspect ratio).
Platform wars — TikTok puts ads all over SC and YouTube to pull users away from those platforms onto TikTok.
Not social — users aren’t there to follow friends, they’re there to be entertained by content from the their favorite creator or from a random person on the internet. Very democratized. Everyone feels like they can make it, go viral, become famous.
No ads/politics — There is no forced and unwanted content that is not user generated to users. The experience remains untainted.
Challenges/Memes — suited very well for challenges, imitations, and memetic transference.

Monetization — How TikTok makes money

Gift sales — livestreams allow users to send gifts (money) to the streamer. Platform takes a cut.
Advertising brand collaborations — short form branded content that is pushed on a user’s feed.

Competition

Facebook — launched carbon copy app Lasso (fuckers) and tried to take most followed TikTok users away from the platform. Product lead for Lasso left right after they launched the app.

Firework — short form video app, more of an instagram take on the theme: inspirational, curated, putting on your best face.

Conclusion

What seems cringey and confusing to older generations is what makes TikTok successful. It creates a fun and safe place for young people to express themselves, find joy, and be silly. This doesn’t exist in any other popular apps. Mainstream social apps push unwanted content onto its users, tell them how they should look/act, and are cesspools of negativity and trolling. TikTok, like it’s users, are still in the innocent part of life and want to the see the world as a playground they are free to experience.

The app itself isn’t social in the way that social networking was originally coined. New “social” apps coming out today aren’t about connecting with friends/family. They’re about connecting with anyone in the world, whether that be a celebrity or just a random person. Gen Z was born into a world post the invention of the internet. Their worldview is shaped by being connected to entire world, not by the people they grew up with or live next to or went to school with. They only know the constant flow of information, stimulation, and connection that the internet gave us.

It’s too early to say if TikTok is going to stay around and if they have a clear path to monetization. If they follow the likes of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, then they will adapt the platform to be more ad focused and push more branded content in front of their users. However, there is a possibility of going a different way. Given that TikTok is owned by a Chinese tech company they could drive more into mobile payments and other non-ad driven business models that Chinese startups have used. Leaning into gifting, in video product promotion, potentially a patreon type platform could open up TikTok into a world where large consumer tech platforms don’t have to rely on ads to make money.

Hope you enjoyed this analysis and teardown. The next platform I’ll be looking at is Pinterest given their recent IPO filing. Smash that follow button to be in the loop!

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