TikTok: key things to know

TikTok boasts over a thousand million users worldwide, at the side of greater than 170 million within the US, it says — nearly half the country’s inhabitants.

Right here’s a nearer peep on the app, which mentioned Thursday it had signed a care for investors that will allow it to succor US operations and keep a long way from a ban threat over its Chinese ownership.

Born in China

TikTok’s surge from niche video-sharing tool to global powerhouse is with out doubt one of the critical largest shifts in digital entertainment for the explanation that advent of social media.

From web protest online visitors dancing together to home cooks sharing recipes, TikTok can change into traditional users into celebrities, revolutionizing the archaic course to stardom.

It became launched in 2016 by Chinese tech firm ByteDance for the native market, the put it called Douyin. The global version, TikTok, became launched in 2017.

The app gained huge momentum after merging with Musical.ly, a lip-synching app, a yr later.

‘For You’ web protest

The so-called secret sauce in TikTok’s rapid expansion has been its innovative recommendation algorithm.

As a replacement of unveiling protest from accounts that users already express, the unending scroll of TikTok’s “For You” web protest is according to viewing habits, engagement patterns and refined protest diagnosis.

A video from a total unknown can reach hundreds and hundreds of of us if the algorithm determines it appealing ample — a mannequin that the app’s competitors were fleet to coach.

TikTok’s care for instant clips also helps succor users twisted.

It became on the starting put puny to uploads of 15 seconds, but this became later expanded to as a lot as 10 minutes, and now some users can put up videos as long as 60 minutes.

Political suspicions

TikTok’s mass allure contrivance its rise has been controversial — primarily over its Chinese ownership and its built-in unpredictability.

The platform has faced scrutiny from governments worldwide, particularly within the US, over records privacy and ability ties to the Chinese executive, at the side of accusations of spying and propaganda.

India banned TikTok along with assorted Chinese apps in 2020, citing national security concerns.

Huge stunning

A European Union watchdog fined TikTok 530 million euros ($620 million) in Would perchance moreover for failing to guarantee its user records became protected against bag admission to by Chinese authorities.

The social media giant has appealed the lovely, insisting it has never bought any requests from Chinese authorities for European users’ records.

Teenage safety fears

In a world first this month, Australia banned under-16s from predominant social media platforms at the side of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, with the onus on the tech companies to kick younger users off their services.

Other countries possess expressed advise regarding the ability outcomes of TikTok on younger users, at the side of accusations it funnels them into echo chambers and fails to love unlawful, violent or shameful protest.

Albania banned TikTok for a yr in March after a 14-yr-extinct schoolboy became killed within the culmination of a confrontation that began on social media.

Sell or be banned

The US Congress handed regulations in 2024 requiring ByteDance to divest succor watch over of TikTok within the US or be banned.

On Thursday, in step with an internal memo considered by AFP, TikTok CEO Shou Chunk urged employees that the social media firm and its Chinese proprietor ByteDance had agreed to a brand new joint project within the US.

Oracle — whose executive chairman Larry Ellison is a longtime ally of President Donald Trump — Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-primarily based mostly MGX are on board as predominant investors.

“The US joint venture will be responsible for US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance,” Chunk mentioned within the memo.

Source: AFP