TIKTOK: Sparking app that frenzied in Social Media

What is Tiktok? Some people may not have heard of this name before. Tiktok owned by ByteDance company in China, they describe themselves as “a destination for short – form mobile videos”. Tiktok is a short 15 seconds video that allows users to film their videos up to 15 seconds long with many sorts of special effects. Users can also add music and sound effects in the video for free which often seen through featuring dancing, lip- synching, dancing, doing ticks etc. The users allow to share it directly to other social media that they’ve linked accounts with and also the users can save it as private.

Once you started to watch videos of other users on Tiktok, you will have a feeling of brain freeze because they’re incredibly addictive. There are about 80 milliondownloads in the U.S and nearly 800 milliondownloads worldwide with 500 million global active users. Tiktok became so popular in many countries but especially in Asian countries such as Thailand, China, Japan, India, Nepal etc. Tikok is the world’s most downloaded app on the IOS app store in 2018 (via Sensor Tower), and the average rating for the app is around 4 to 5 stars in global.

Tiktok becomes brand awareness in Tiktok by tapping into trending of memes and challenges. The user base Tiktok is mostly in the ages of 13 to 24, and the majority of users are female according to Musical.ly data. Tiktok challenges usually involve using popular songs, funny sounds and hashtag. Some of the popular trends on Tiktok can be found on the search page; most of trend and challenges mostly come with a specific hashtag. Trending of hashtag will also list on the search with the number of times it has been used. Tiktok is reaching out to the large audiences through the concepts of comedy, beauty and music genres as for them it is the most important to draw extra attention to the audience. Here is one example of the most popular Tiktok videos challenges.

Tiktok launched its own campaign “#gagadancemachine” that allows the motion sensor to detects motions and movements of users. Based on the principles of contagiousness, this campaign has advertised itself to Publicas the majority of people shared their recorded videos of this campaign on social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. Tiktok aims to launch another series with more Storiesscenarios to attract users’ attention and keeping users’ excitement. From this campaign, Tiktok became so popular and well known in the Asia market, especially in Thailand and Japan.

Celebrities endorsement are one of the powerful spotlights in encourage people to participate and join with Tiktok. Tiktok started to rise internet celebrities to reinforce the power of the social network in getting higher user growth. For instance, the hashtags #tumbleweedchallenge and #elfontheshelfchallenge create by NBC Tonight Show Host Jimmy Fallon have created more than 19 million views.

(Screenshots of celebrities’ participations through hashtags on Tiktok)

TikTok is not only for public users but also available for some businesses to advertise and promote their brands to gain brand awareness through Tiktok app. For instance,, Guessis the first brand experimenting with Tiktok through hashtag campaign #inmydenim. Guess launched the first official video featuring with popular creators on Tiktok, and from there, users are following to submit their versions of “mess to best dressed” with wearing Guess jeans. Guess aims to targets young customers and create an image for their brand. Guess’s campaign has been successful with 34 million views with users participated in organically and enthusiastically. The short video format allows the business to create the most attractive features of products and services to present the company and also to turn customers experiences into the powerful Social Currency.

Let me know your thoughts of TikTok, would you download TikTok app and share your video to others?