TikTok is a social network focused on sharing highly customizable short videos directly from its app.
It was launched in 2016 in China under the name "Douyin," developed by ByteDance.
Initially, it exclusively centered around music and humor, allowing users to synchronize short videos with background music.
TikTok has become a global phenomenon that other social networks have struggled to contend with, creating a new form of online culture and entertainment.
This impact has been so profound that platforms like YouTube and Instagram have mimicked its systems in attempts to compete, yet TikTok continues to grow rather than decline.
It now boasts over 1.6 billion users worldwide.
Before diving into its features, let's discuss one of the most significant changes it brought: its algorithm.
For the first time, content could go viral without requiring thousands of followers (though possible, it was challenging).
A user with a newly created account could garner millions of views without necessarily gaining followers.
This shift diminished the importance of followers while elevating the significance of virality.
Though initially designed for videos of up to 30 seconds, TikTok extended this limit to 30 minutes by 2024 in response to user feedback and to attract users from other platforms.
However, general and viral content typically remains between 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
This time constraint encourages creativity and conciseness in content creation.
TikTok's algorithm revolutionized how social media is understood: prior to its launch, going viral often correlated with gaining followers; with TikTok, a video could garner millions of views with only a handful of followers, or vice versa.
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