PPB November 2019

THINK Some people are familiar with TikTok only through its recent notoriety. The social media app, which allows users to make and share short videos, was fined $5.7 million by the Federal Trade Commission in February for violating children’s privacy by collecting personal information from underage users. The news was covered briefly in PPB ’s October 2019 issue. But there’s more to this tool that suggests marketers shouldn’t judge a book—or an app—by its cover. Let’s look into this new tool, what it offers and how consumers are using it. What is TikTok? To understand what TikTok is, let’s first look into how it got started. TikTok was formerly Musical.ly, a Shanghai-based social media platform launched in 2014 that allowed users to express themselves creatively by sharing 15-second clips of them lip-synching, dancing, singing and practicing comedy. Think digital karaoke, of sorts, for younger users. ByteDance, a Chinese IT company based in Beijing and worth more than $75 billion, according to TechCrunch, and the parent company of TikTok, purchased Musical.ly in November 2017 for $1 billion. TikTok and Musical.ly were popular in different parts of the world—Musical. ly in North and South America and Europe, and TikTok in Asia. ByteDance absorbed Musical.ly to draw users to a single, cohesive app. Currently, TikTok, which goes by the name of Douyin in China, has more than 300 million active users each month and has been downloaded more than one billion times. How Do You Use It? Users, which mainly include teens and young adults, can download the TikTok app to their smartphone using Google Play for Android, or Apple’s App Store for iPhone. TikTok’s policy requires users to be at least 13 years old, and asks them to register using their email, phone number or through their Facebook, Google or Twitter account. Despite age requirements, the app has also garnered attention for being popular with underage, or “tween,” users. Users can customize their username, privacy and profile settings, though there are no parental control options. On every video, there’s a panel of icons along the righthand side, which users can select to “follow” the profile of the person in the video they’re watching, “like” the video and view comments other users shared about the video. If the user clicks the spinning “record” icon, they will be taken to other videos that feature the same sound clip or song as the one they are watching. The app encourages collaboration and allows users to share screens with each other, known as a “duet.” Musical.ly was mostly about lip-synching, but TikTok is a bit more expansive. Dancing is particular popular to view on the app, along with other activities, like gymnastics and cheerleading. Media companies, like NBCUniversal and Seventeen, also host short “shows” on the app aimed at younger users. “Celebrities” have emerged in the app, some with millions of followers, and fans can donate anywhere from five cents to $50 to their favorite users, known as “Musers.” Lisa and Lena Mantler, 14-year-old identical twins from Stuttgart, Germany— twins are popular on TikTok, too—whose account has since been deleted for unrelated reasons, were earning some $25,000 per month through partnerships in 2017, according to Slate. TikTok is also big with “challenges,” which typically require users to follow a format for a video, adding their own interpretation. If you follow the hash tag #MatildaChallenge (the app uses hash tags to conduct searches), tagged videos feature users attempting telekinesis, as the main character does in the 1996 movie Matilda. If you follow the hash tag #UnMakeupChallenge, you’ll TECH TALK Say ‘Hello’ To TikTok The popular video-sharing app may be a useful, new tool for marketers. 88 | NOVEMBER 2019 |