By Marilena Kagkaraki,
We all know TikTok now. Most of us are even on TikTok. But how did it become a trend? If you do not know what TikTok is, it is a social media app, based on short videos of some seconds that are easily edited through the platform. It hosts all kinds of content and has 800 million users. However, it did not used to be like that.
The app was first launched in 2016 in the Chinese market under the name of “Douyin”, then owned by a company called Bytedance. It only came about in the western world after it merged with another Chinese app, named “musical.ly”, in 2018. At that point, people were still hungry for Instagram and its features. Not many people in the western world knew TikTok, much less use it. However, musical.ly had some popularity but it was very fast-paced and did not really get people to use it as much as other social media platforms. However, cut to early 2020, when the pandemic hit, TikTok blew up like none would have expected. Quarantine got people to check out this new app and its features, and it actually got them hooked.
At first, it started with content for a younger audience with some dance routines, but as it grew and its popularity increased, more content was available. The more available content there was, the more people could spend time browsing on it. And the more known it became, the more creative people got. Its content got really good and even professional. Filmmakers and people in the creative industry took advantage of this trend and started posting visually extraordinary content, getting millions of views. It is worth mentioning at this point that, using some right hashtags and, if the content is good, TikTok algorithms really help videos go viral.
Thus, people saw an amazing opportunity for good and easy content in their likings. Creative people are always a big part of these platforms. Nonetheless, TikTok had made quite an extraordinary presence. The reality is that trending songs in radio charts have become popular through the virality of TikTok. An example is Lil Nas X with the song “Old Town Road”, which started as a viral meme on the platform, and later he was discovered by Billy Ray Cyrus, who made the song as we know it today, topping radio charts and becoming the first song on Billboard 100.
In general, so many songs nowadays are trending again because of the platform’s virality. TikTok influencers, or TikTokers as they have been known, are taking over the world by storm, and are another portion of creators for this platform with millions of followers and billions of likes and views. Charlie D’Amelio is a great example, who was one of the first most-followed people on TikTok. It seems that this social media is now established and is no longer a trend, but it will keep growing, because, as I said before, people invest now in creating worthy TikTok content. It has started to become a place where many companies even post trending and good quality content for promotion, relatable for the vibe of the platform, and people are following it. It only remains to be seen now how creators will evolve the platform and what more we all can do with it creatively.
Lastly, it is worth mentioning that a lot of people at first refused to go on TikTok, considering it a young people’s place. Far from it now, most people are on TikTok, regardless of age, because its content is shared on all other social platforms as well and they get lured into it. When you first start your TikTok account, most people do not expect to like it, quickly enough they find themselves scrolling and being on TikTok for hours. Now, that has changed and people follow TikTok way more. As always, though, moderation and not letting ourselves be carried away for too many hours is something to consider as well as what kind of content we are consuming.
