2019 was a boon for Chinese short-video content platform TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin. Despite being banned by the US Navy and Army on grounds of causing security breach, the social media platform was downloaded over 700 million times around the globe, overtaking giants like Facebook and Messenger to take on the #2 spot, right behind WhatsApp. As other platforms take note of TikTok’s business strategy and launch rival products, 2020 will be a test for parent firm Bytedance.
The global leader WhatsApp is at 850 million downloads, followed by TikTok. Both platforms rely heavily on the young Indian audience for sustenance. According to a survey conducted by Sensor Tower, 45% of the first-time downloads were from India. While WhatsApp’s growth for Q4 2019 was up by 39%, primarily due to the Indian audience.
Likee, a product of Singapore-based Bigo, is a smaller rival with close to 330 million downloads, half of which are from India. The survey conducted by Sensor Tower takes data from the Google Play Store, and App Store. However, the figures are likely to be higher since Google Play is blocked in China.
TikTok has revolutionized the Short video format for sure. Some of the bigger names like Facebook and Instagram are taking note and plan on acting on them shortly” revealed Meenakshi Tiwari, an analyst at technology market research firm Forrester. The assessment comes shortly at the heels of Reels, Instagram’s short video platform designed to counter TikTok, which launched in Brazil two months back.
WhatsApp poses an imminent threat to TokTok as the former has not yet monetized its user base. TikTok is under serious cash crunch at the moment, since most of its revenue is generated in China despite its rapid global expansion. Beijing-based Chenjin Culture operates individual accounts for TikTok and Douyin. While the Douyin account earns between 50,000 yuan (~7,268$) and 100,000 yuan (~$14,536) with 5 million users, TikTok has failed to generate profits despite its 1.6 million-strong userbases.
TikTok is now looking at an advert strategy by luring advertisers with a news feed with content curated from its users and professional creators. Hence, mimicking rival Snap’s strategy. TikTok’s efforts may be in vain as most advertisers are afraid their content will run alongside distressing or even illegal content.
In response to news of TIkTok’s monetization plan, a US spokesperson for the company said it was exciting to see the diverse range of creativity coming from the community and TikTok’s steady popularity with the creators. Besides competition, TikTok is also facing flak from US lawmakers over the potential security breaches. In response, TikTok has made numerous changes to its policy to refrain from posting political content, which is termed misleading in its Terms of Service (ToS).
UP NEXT: Facebook is developing its own operating system from scratch
