TikTok was born in August of 2018 from the combination of two applications, Musical.ly and Douyin. Bytedance, a big Chinese internet corporation, bought the U.S. lip-syncing app Musical.ly shortly after it became famous. A short time later, Bytedance merged Musical.ly with its other popular short-video app, Douyin, because the two had the same goal in mind: “to establish a community where everyone could be a creative.” Two years later in 2020, the platform’s popularity has skyrocketed. With over 800 million monthly users, TikTok has amassed a massive following.
TikTok videos used to mostly feature people singing and dancing, but now users post videos about anything from makeup tutorials to cooking tips to comedy sketches to responses to viral challenges. The app’s functionality for users to follow, “like,” and comment on material and other users is quite similar to that of Facebook and Instagram, two of its main competitors. Users of the TikTok app, in contrast to watching videos made by their friends and family, use the app to be delighted by total strangers. In contrast to other platforms, the material on TikTok is natural, lighthearted, and less contrived, and the app’s algorithm makes it easy for regular people to become overnight sensations and microinfluencers.
Why everyone needs TikTok?
Setting aside its insane popularity, TikTok is currently experiencing turbulence in the United States as its Chinese-owned parent firm Bytedance is under review for possible user privacy concerns. TikTok must sell to a US-based corporation by November 12, 2020, per an executive order signed by President Trump on August 6, 2020, or the platform will be prohibited in the US. Although Microsoft, Twitter, Oracle, and Google have all been mentioned as potential buyers, the future of the social networking platform is still up in the air.
Alternative and Up-and-Coming Platforms to TikTok
Many similar services, such as Triller, Likee, and Instagram Reels, have had rapid user growth since TikTok’s imminent prohibition was announced.
The 5-year-old entertainment platform Triller is a good example of an app that has benefited from the current TikTok debate. There has been a 50% uptick in Triller installs since the EO was announced, increasing the total number of users on the platform to 120 million.
Comparable to TikTok, Triller is a video-sharing platform with a narrower focus: the music industry. TikTok, on the other hand, maintains a balance between relevant TikTok influencers’ videos and videos from regular users, while its algorithm prefers established musical artist accounts when giving consumers new videos.
It’s not just TikTok’s rival, video-sharing app Likee, that’s seen an uptick in users since the ban rumours began circulating. Recent financials show that Likee has amassed a global user base of 150 million, an increase of 88 percent from Q2 2019.
In the same way as TikTok is not limited to a specific industry, Likee is an open-ended platform. The app’s Artificial Intelligence engine is thought to be superior than that of TikTok, and its cutting-edge tools have earned it widespread acclaim. TikTok’s virtual gifting feature is a unique selling point, since it enables the platform’s influencers to monetize their fan-given content.
Instagram’s latest feature, Reels, is an obvious attempt to lure users away from rival app TikTok. Users of Reels can make 15-second multi-clip films with audio, effects, and creative tools, much to those made with the popular app TikTok.
Instagram users with public profiles can also publish their Reels to a new section of the “Explore” tab, expanding their reach to the app’s overall user base. When compared to TikTok’s algorithm and virality, the “Explore” tab’s curated videos are based simply on comparable pages you follow. TikTok, on the other hand, takes into account various variables including the percentage of videos seen and makes an effort to avoid showing consecutive “too similar” videos.
In what ways can I resourcefully utilise preexisting infrastructures?
You can’t talk about social media advertising without including Facebook. We discover that Facebook users are often overlooked in favour of Instagram’s hipper following. Facebook Live and Facebook Groups are just two of the many ways that you may interact with influential users on Facebook and reach new people.
Facebook Live premiered first, then IG Live. Brand pages and influencers may now broadcast live videos to their followers using Facebook Live. At the platform’s outset, several cosmetics companies saw Facebook live as a way to collaborate with influencers on how to use their products. Several companies, notably Sephora and others with significant online followings, have continued to take use of this capability by hosting regular “FB lives” for their devoted fan bases on the social media platform.
TikTok influencer marketing might be used to offer customers cool pins
Hear us out on LinkedIn Tales. While LinkedIn may not be the first social media site that springs to mind when you think of influencer marketing, the recent introduction of LinkedIn Stories presents a great opportunity for thought leaders to expand their reach and influence.
Especially in the business-to-business sector, LinkedIn Stories might be a tremendous possibility for connecting with potential clients, depending on the client. The function is still under beta testing, but we see this as a great potential in the future.
It’s no secret that YouTube has become an influential people’s haven. Brands may have access to high-quality video assets on YouTube, and because this content is evergreen, it can help spread brand awareness to a growing audience over time.
As marketers, we can learn from this possible ban how crucial it is to employ multiple channels to promote our initiatives.