Tik Tok is an app, and its content is suddenly taking over the internet. Basically, it’s a short form video sharing app. People upload short videos and watch the content on smart devices, phones and tablets. Kids and young adults are going crazy over it, and you might not even know what it is yet.
Well, it’s time to learn. It’s creating waves and it’s something that parents should know about.
The Basics
Tik Tok is owned by a private firm in China known as Bytedance, and if you can believe it, it is one of the worlds most valuable private companies. (They just purchased Music.ly for a billion dollars…)
Tik Tok was launched in China as “Doujin” in 2016. Tik Tok is described as “… a destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and precious life moments, directly from the mobile phone. Tik Tok enables everyone to be a creator, and encourages users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos.“
What this means is that Tik Tok pushes out a massive global amount of lowest common denominator content to impressionable young eyes. Ever heard of Baby Shark? You will. And you will regret it.
Tik Tok users create their own content. They tap and hold to record short videos. Users can add music and special effects and then upload the content with hashtags to hit topics and trends. If you remember ‘Vine’, you have a pretty good idea of what Tik Tok is.
Tik Tok added about 10 million users per month through stretches of 2018, with about total 250+million users in December 2018. 2019 should see the app explode across the world.
What’s there?
Part of the allure of Tik Tok is its content. Tik Tok users have embraced the short, clipped look and feel, and see the app as a place to experiment with silly videos and crazy ideas. Tik Tok videos feel new and original.
Tik Tok users tend to be young people. Users aged 11-20 made up the largest segment with about 35% of total users, 21-30-year-old users were next at 23%.
Content is created by users and shared with users. Content can range from silly dancing, lip syncing songs to themed clips like smashing food in your friend’s faces and filming their reaction. Challenges and Copycatting are definitely themes here.
In the concluding part of this article, we’ll look at the concerns surrounding this app and how you can rationally handle this app and your kids’ safety at the same time.