What is TikTok and why does it own Musical.ly
What is TikTok and why does it own Musical.ly?
Chinese video platform TikTok has taken over Musical.ly, merging the two app powerhouses. In China, the app is known as Douyin and has over 300 million monthly active users, much bigger than Musical.ly’s reach.
Whilst TikTok is based around users uploading short videos of themselves, like good old Vine used to do, it doesn’t have the emphasis on music and songs like Musical.ly did.
TikTok is winning over millennials and Instagram stars as its popularity explodes
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/05/tech/tiktok-bytedance-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html
Army bans TikTok on military devices, signaling growing concern about app’s Chinese roots
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/army-bans-tiktok-on-military-devices-signaling-growing-concern-about-app-s-chinese-roots-1.613087
Why is TikTok so popular? An investigation A look at the younger generation’s favourite platform It has over half a billion users, more downloads in 2018 than YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and is worth more than US $75 billion. What’s got everyone raving about the newcomer that is TikTok? If you are over the age of 40, A.K.A not a millennial, you’ll probably need the appeal of avocado on toast explained to you. In a similar vein, if you are over 16, you probably need the appeal of TikTok explained to you. TikTok is a 15-second-or-less video creation app that… Read more »
Teen embeds message about Xinjiang Uyghurs in TikTok make-up vid
The video starts with a teenager offering eyelash curling advice to her followers. But this is no ordinary beauty tip.
Just seconds into Feroza Aziz’s seemingly straightforward tutorial, the 17-year-old Afghan American woman tells the viewer to put down the lash curler and seamlessly transitions from eyelash curling to politics. “Use the phone that you’re using right now to search up what’s happening in China,” she states matter of factly.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/27/tech/tiktok-xinjiang-eyelash-curling-scli-intl-hnk/index.html
TikTok owner scrutinised over Musical.ly deal The owner of Chinese video-sharing service TikTok is undergoing a national security review of its purchase of the Musical.ly app, reports Reuters. ByteDance bought Musical.ly for $1bn (£773m) in 2017. Quoting unnamed sources, Reuters said the deal was being probed because it had not been cleared by a US body that scrutinises acquisitions. The investigations comes amid growing US suspicion of Chinese tech firms’ activity. Regulator review The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has started to look at the Musical.ly deal, sources told Reuters. The Committee has scope to look… Read more »
TikTok and Douyin rake in $75 million with in-app purchases TikTok Has Made $75 Million So Far from In-App Purchases on the App Store and Google Play – Sensor Tower What happened: TikTok and Douyin have brought in an estimated $75 million (around RMB 500 million) through in-app sales of virtual coins, according to mobile app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. TikTok users in the US contributed the most to the sales, purchasing close to $41.3 million worth of coins, or 55% of the global total. About 23% of the revenue came from China’s iOS users, who use the app’s Chinese… Read more »
中国抖音震抖世界 下载量逾10亿次 直逼ins与脸书
中国抖音国际版的全球下载量已超过10亿次，这款初入海外市场的中国app已成为Instagram和Facebook的竞争对手。不过尽管抖音以及其他中国科技网络平台产品向世界扩张，中国在境内则屏蔽了美国的社交媒体平台和大部分外国媒体及网络平台。
字节跳动(ByteDance)还拥有新闻app《今日头条》(Toutiao)，该公司一直在快速招聘员工，包括在美国，其竞争对手估计该公司如今有5万名员工（字节跳动没有披露雇员人数）。这使其在去年6月底轻松领先于Facebook（35587名雇员）和腾讯(Tencent) 48864的员工数。
报道认为，这家总部位于北京的公司得到了软银(SoftBank)的支持，但对于一家科技初创企业来说，没有获得中国两大巨头阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和腾讯的资金支持是不同寻常的。在上一轮融资时，该公司的估值为750亿美元。
报道说，其时髦的短视频非常容易使人沉迷，一些人将此归因于其精明的算法。但也有人表示，其卖点主要是用户的原创内容。
据竞争对手的一名高管表示，“这告诉我的是，与其说字节跳动是一家高科技企业，不如称其为一家内容创意公司，因为他们找到了真正吸引观众的诀窍。”此人承认自己也沉迷于这些视频内容。他说，“相形之下，Instagram只是一个传播平台。”