How Much has TikTok Changed the Digital world?

In just a few months, TikTok has changed the social media world and how people share content and what they share. While some dare to compare Tiktok to Vine, the app is much more than that. To understand TikTok's fast-growing platform, we need first to realize its mission statement "to capture and present the world's creativity, knowledge, and precious life moments, directly from the mobile phone. TikTok enables everyone to be a creator and encourages users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos.

The main reason why the platform is so successful is that anyone can become a content provider to millions by uploading either something funny or informational. TikTok currently has about 800 million worldwide users (Datereportal, 2020) just to understand what it means to have 800 million users, it took Instagram six years to accomplish that number, something this platform did in less than four years. Only in the U.S, the platform counts with 30 million active users, and 42% of the range between the age of 18-24 (Hootsuite, 2020).

              Even companies like the NFL and Universal Pictures have run ads on the app. Even TurboTax ran ads during the tax season. All these companies used specific hashtags, sometimes using dances for particular songs that later became challenges. Some of the ads that we have seen in the app are when pops up that when someone opens Tiktok, they have three to five-second ads or in-feed ads that are longer between 5-15 seconds each.

              TikTok is an application that is here to stay, there is no question about that. However, an issue many marketers have is that they do not know how much has this app will/have change the industry. The answer, a lot! TikTok opens the world to a more creative and natural way for users to express themselves and receive content in a faster, more personalized way. Even big platforms are adapting to this new player of the industry Instagram is testing a new way to find and share stories that mention your profile; they are testing a new story display, which makes it easier to switch and choose between stories (Hutchinson, 2020). Stories are close to overtaking the regular Instagram feed, and with more users using them to share content and business using them to advertise is just a matter of time. These are only beta tests; if they prove to be a success, it will most likely become Instagram's reality. Even Facebook has made some significant changes that include changes in their Facebook market place, messenger, and their appeal to businesses to sell their products. Including the acquisition of GIPHY that cost them $400 million. Another significant change in the industry has been sudden yet thriving in the app Zynn. That is hugely alike to TikTok, but here is the catch. You can earn money. Yes, every user can earn money by using the app; if you like and watch others post, you earn points that can be redeemed later on for gift cards or cash. But it does not stop there; they have a referral program and an influencer program. While as of right now, it does not count with much visually appealing content like TikTok those. The transparency and the appeal of earning money just by watching and interacting via social media with others were enough to knock down TikTok as #1 app in the app store as of right now is not a significant threat for the popular app but is one to keep an eye on (Warwick, 2020).

Think about how much Facebook and Instagram have changed over the past few years, and when was the last time a big social media platform came to the game? Maybe Snapchat comes to mind, well like the yellow ghost app, TikTok appeals to a very young audience. When this platform appeared, we saw a significant change in both Facebook and Instagram. Will TikTok knock off Facebook? We do not know that yet. But what we know is that it is changing the world and opening a space for new platforms like Zynn and a new way to share and create content.