TikTok is currently one of the commonly used social platforms. The platform comprises over one billion monthly active users and is anticipated to increase in the coming years. Reports suggest that active users spend nearly 16 hours a week watching TikTok videos. Moreover, the average time people spend on this application is rising steadily over a while. All these data show how much people are glued to TikTok. Therefore, it is ideal to note that TikTok brought a paradigm shift in the social media industry. Check this article further to learn the dramatic transformation this minimal-duration video social application brings.
Trollishly’s Views on TikTok:
TikTok is the first-ever social platform that was launched as a complete video-centric social application. It was pretty new to the social media industry when founded back in 2016. Even Facebook consisted of only static images and text-filled posts at that time. Marketers are suggested to buy tiktok followers to do promotions on TikTok. People were easily driven towards this lip-synching social application with only video content. There was no other video-centric social application at that time. Commonly people get more driven towards visuals than other forms of content. Hence, the same worked for TikTok. Generation Z was the top user base of TikTok during its initial two years. People of this age group from majority countries had a strong presence on this application. Later, Millennials and the age groups have also started using this application in large numbers. Hence, today TikTok has become a generic social platform for all age groups. It is not more accessible for a social application to comprise people of all age groups. TikTok has achieved it in a reasonable period.
The Reach of Minimal-duration Videos:
The video duration of TikTok was limited to 60 seconds when it was launched. It was new to everyone since the video length was very minimal. Other top social platforms believed that this form of content would not work out as they felt that it was not easier to create content within one minute. But, the duration of the videos is the primary factor that provided a staggering growth to TikTok. The video length was the crucial factor that made TikTok stand out in the crowd. Only then, other digital companies realize how time duration could be a turning point and drive engagement to the videos. Trollishly states that all TikTok did was just minimize the video length, which in turn exploded its reach. Though it seems simple, TikTok has to be appreciated for what it has done as none of the others didn’t even seem to think about it.
How TikTok Revolutionized Social Media Industry:
ByteDance, the company which introduced TikTok to the world, turned into the world’s most valued start-up in 2017. It has achieved it through its tremendous reach across many countries. Other social platforms contemplated adding short videos to their application on seeing the growth of TikTok. Facebook launched ‘Lasso,’ which is almost a duplicate of TikTok. It was also a shorter-duration video social platform. But, it failed to gain traction as it had nothing unique over TikTok. Later, Facebook closed that application as it did not achieve the expected reach from people. Then, it started to transform its application slowly to video-centric. It added a ‘Facebook Watch’ feature that consists of only video content. It also started to give sufficient space for videos in its standard feed. Hence, TikTok was the primary reason behind the transformation made by the top social platform Facebook.
It also brought considerable changes to Instagram. At first, Instagram was a picture-centric social platform. The feeds of Instagram users were filled with static images. Today, video content is the most consumed form of content on Instagram. Later Instagram launched ‘Reels,’ a feature similar to TikTok videos, as part of Instagram. Now YouTube is also making headlines with the rolling out of YouTube Shorts. This feature allows the creator to create shorter-duration videos. Hence, YouTube has also started to concentrate on creating shorter-duration videos. Thus, TikTok has even left a significant impact on the most used video application ‘YouTube.’ Therefore, through this, it is evident that TikTok has brought a change to the dynamics of the social media industry.
The Launch of New Features:
TikTok always keeps its application updated with new features and brings notable changes. So, it always builds a specific curiosity among the users by introducing something new to its users. Thus, it always caters to the expectations of the users and provides them with a better user experience. Such factors have been aiding TikTok to have consistent growth in its user base. For example, tikTok Duets was a massive hit when it was launched. Later, Instagram had also introduced a similar feature.
Wrapping Up:
TikTok will have massive growth in the coming years. It may launch new features to its application soon, which may significantly impact the social media industry. So, if anyone is about to launch a new social platform, they can look into TikTok as their case study and start their journey.