Teenagers who do challenges, sing duets together, flip a bottle or bake a cake of smarties. On the video platform TikTok it all happens and that within 3 to 15 seconds. Where older people sit on Facebook and young people on Instagram, there is also a platform for the youngest. Tiktok, the hardest growing social media channel where you can play videos at lightning speed. In this article we zoom in on this booming app and look at the opportunities for brands.
What is TikTok?
TikTok was launched on August 2, 2018 as a platform for short videos, in which young people can share videos of 3 to 15 seconds. Since the last years, the application has become very popular. The young audience likes fast, interactive content and TikTok plays well on that.
Does this app sound familiar to you? That could indeed be. In 2014, the app Musical.ly, where you could also share short music videos with others. In 2017, this app already had more than 200 million users. The Chinese developer ByteDance saw an opportunity and decided to combine Musical.ly with the former TikTok and that's how today's TikTok came into being.
What can you do with TikTok?
<span style="font-weight: 400;">TikTok users share short videos between 3 to 15 seconds where they do something funny, playback or dance to a hip hop song. Like Instagram, hashtags are important and provide easy findability. The users, also called creators, are challenged by TikTok to participate in challenges. Through their account, they can respond to other videos by making their own remake or letting them know with a like or comment that they think it's a great video.</span>
Why has TikTok grown so fast?
Since the last 2 years, TikTok has experienced tremendous growth and that's not really surprising. More and more users want fast, inspiring content and don't want to read texts or watch videos for minutes. Previously, we wrote a blog about the dominance of the Internet through video content.
"With TikTok, young people create content together that make it even more fun to share videos."
Experimenting and inventing together, that's what TikTok stands for. By pushing the boundaries and engaging in crazy experiments, young people are challenged to make videos. Usually videos have a high 'meme content'. This makes the videos fun, relevant and funny, making them easier and faster to share. Like Instagram, you can build a "follower base." The more followers, the bigger your profile. Even influencers have found their place on the platform. Where influencers are, chances are!
How big is TikTok now?
In a number of figures we explain how big TikTok is at the moment:
- TikTok is the most downloaded social media app worldwide since 2018.
- Worldwide there are 760 million users, of which 80 are under 18.
- In total, there are 3.5 million users in the Netherlands, including 500,000 active users per month.
- There are also more and more influencers on TikTok. Dutch influencers already have millions of followers.
- In the Netherlands, TikTok has been in the top 3 downloads for weeks. The rapid growth makes both Snapchat and Instagram very difficult.
- On average, the app is used for 52 minutes a day.
How to address the TikTok target group
The app was previously mainly used by young people between the ages of 6 and 18. In the last year, this has changed a lot and the app is also used by adults. Still, about 80 of the users are between 6 and 24 years old. Do you want to get in touch with this target group as a marketer? Then TikTok is the app to find them. Of course, you also want to communicate in the same tone as this target group. Be aware that young people need a different approach. Communication doesn't have to be perfect for young people, but it's a bit edgy, humorous and wrong.
"Are you funny as a brand and dare to take your own deprecation? Then TikTok can be the perfect platform for you."
Why TikTok is a suitable channel to use now:
- You don't have to be an influencer to go viral. It is precisely because of the fast interaction that everyone deserves a place.
- TikTok is user-friendly and easy to create.
- You'll get in direct contact with different users as soon as you create a profile.
What else can you do with TikTok?
It is clear that TikTok is growing extremely fast and that this is a platform to keep an eye on. But how do you get on with it? What does TikTok marketing look like and what are examples of successful campaigns? In our next blog we take a closer look at TikTok's marketing capabilities. Until then, we offer you a number of alternatives to stand out as a brand. Here's how we help you content marketing.
and advertising on channels such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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