An in-depth look at how TikTok started and why it gained so much popularity so quickly, as well as its many controversies

When Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Apps Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act, it effectively banned TikTok from hundreds of millions of American users. The lawmakers said They were trying to prevent the spread Dangerous lies And protecting Americans’ personal data from being accessed and “weaponized” by the Chinese government.

President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on April 24, 2024, giving TikTok nine months to find a new American owner — or face closure in the United States.

What is Tik Tok? Who owns it?

TikTok is a popular social media app that allows users to discover, create and share videos ranging from three seconds to 10 minutes in length. These videos capture everything from funny pet moments to makeup and fitness tutorials, lip-sync battles, and choreographed dance moves. There are 170 million TikTok users in the United States alone.

TikTok is privately owned by China-based ByteDance, an internet giant Forbes It has been called “the world’s most valuable startup.” It is estimated to be With a value of 215 billion dollarsTikTok’s global operations make up half of ByteDance’s revenue; The rest comes from its other 40 companies, including Douyin, a video platform widely used in China, Lark, which monitors office productivity, and Cap Cut, a video editing app.

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While ByteDance is headquartered in China (Beijing to be precise), TikTok is headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore, where CEO Shou Zi Chew resides.

According to TikTok data, more than half of America’s population uses the app, including more than seven million small businesses. But in the few years since its launch in 2016, TikTok has become more than just a source of entertainment or even income, it is now deeply entrenched in everyday life.

According to a November 2023 survey from Pew Research CenterMore than 30% of Generation Z, ages 18 to 29, regularly get their news from TikTok, and 40% of them use the platform, along with Instagram, as their main search engine.

TikTok creators, NBC News reported They unanimously oppose Ban, and in addition to summoning their representatives in Congress, more than one hundred thousand signatures were added to the list Change.org petition “Stop TikTok.”

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Although the US government’s deadline for ByteDance to pull TikTok is January 19, 2025, users likely won’t wake up the next morning to find the app deleted from their phones or the police at their doors if they try to download it.

The reason: The stage has already been set for a long courtroom battle. In May 2024, ByteDance filed a legal challenge claiming that the law Violates your First Amendment rights Of American TikTok users, many believe the case could reach the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, we take a look at how TikTok got started and why it gained so much popularity so quickly, as well as its many controversies. We also reveal who has made a bid for the company in the past – as they may help shed light on what happens next.

60 second tik tok history

The first short video app to gain mainstream traction wasn’t TikTok; It was fine. Launched in 2013, Vine allows users to create and share six-second videos from their smartphones, and gained 40 million users in its first year alone. Eventually, Vine was acquired by Twitter.

Next came Snapchat Stories, a popular offshoot of Snapchat’s photo-sharing app that allowed users to create threads of shared content that disappeared after 24 hours. The company has integrated more advanced advertising technology into this app, making it more profitable. Snapchat Stories was also the first app to offer an “auto-advance” feature, where content seamlessly transitions from one story to another.

The development continued with the China-based app Musical.ly, which was introduced in 2014. This app allows users to create and share lip-sync videos. This app comes with a lot of features, including a wide range of music to choose from, as well as a social network for user communication. Other innovative features included a ‘duet’ function where two people would record videos of the same song which were merged together online.

Musical.ly caught the attention of ByteDance, which launched Douyin, a similar app for its Chinese market, in September 2016. Douyin has been hugely popular, gaining more than 100 million Chinese users in less than a year. It dominates the Chinese market.

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ByteDance bought Musical.ly for $800 million in 2017 with a plan to launch it as a global version of Douyin. By the summer of 2018, the company shifted all Musical.ly content and user accounts to the new app called TikTok.

TikTok took off like a rocket ship. By 2021, it had become the most successful app in the world, with more than a billion users; In 2023, the company stated that It generated $15 billion in revenue For American small businesses alone.

Axios said in March that TikTok’s U.S. revenue could range between $16 billion and $18 billion. The report said that American business may be unprofitable.

Why is TikTok so unique?

TikTok’s behind-the-scenes machinations are what makes it so powerful and successful. Its algorithm has the ability to understand what users like more quickly than other apps.

TikTok uses this to maximum advantage on the app’s For You page, where the algorithm suggests content to users based on what they’ve previously interacted with. In other words, the algorithm doesn’t just show what’s popular; It creates a personalized content experience based on a user’s likes, preferences – and even interests at certain times of the day.

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TikTok controversy

TikTok’s algorithm may have fueled its incredible success, but it has also raised concerns about whether the app is safe for young and vulnerable audiences.

An internal document he obtained New York times It revealed that TikTok’s algorithm is optimized to retain users and time spent on the app, creating an addiction of sorts, which can quickly become dangerous if the content a viewer focuses on promotes violence, self-harm or even suicide.

One example of a trending hashtag with tragic consequences is the “blackout challenge,” which became popular on TikTok in 2021. The challenge involved short-term oxygen deprivation through suffocation and was ultimately responsible for the death of a 10-year-old boy. girl, Nella Anderson, in Philadelphia. As a result, Anderson’s mother filed a lawsuit against TikTok and ByteDance, but her case wasn’t the only legal action the company faced over harmful content.

It has inspired other video challenges Car thefts, Mass hospitalization And suicide. In response, TikTok pledged to combat any content that violates its terms of service by immediately removing it from the app.

In 2020 alone, TikTok reported deletions More than 89 million videosof which the company deleted 83.3% of them before they received any views.

Additionally, politicians have raised alarms about what TikTok does with the large amounts of data it collects — and especially with whom it shares this data. Because ByteDance is a Chinese company, it is subject to the laws of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which maintains its own data surveillance operations as well as controlling access to data from private companies.

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However, TikTok stated that its US user data is not stored in China. Rather, it is Stored on Oracle cloud servers It is managed by US employees through a third-party data security company based in the US. This storage system was created specifically for this purpose. TikTok also revealed that it has spent $1.5 billion In an effort to prevent unauthorized access to user data from foreign governments.

But lawmakers remain unconvinced. “TikTok… threatens the health, privacy, and security of the American people,” said Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.). In his testimony in March 2023 “And I am not convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks it poses to Americans in its current form,” he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

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Ban Tik Tok

Former President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in 2020, but a federal judge His actions frustrated herPointing out that “the national security threat posed by TikTok is hypothetical” and that “the danger posed by the government outweighs the public interest.”

India tried to ban TikTok – twice – and finally succeeded in 2020. After unrest on the India-China border that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, the Indian government banned TikTok and TikTok. Nearly 60 other Chinese apps. App stores, such as Apple and Google, were required to remove the app, meaning new users were unable to download it, and ISPs were mandated to stop accepting any orders.

Afghanistan, Nepal and Taiwan have also banned TikTok completely, while Australia, Canada and the UK have banned its use on government-issued devices.

Potential TikTok buyers

When Trump ordered ByteDance to find a buyer for TikTok’s US business in 2020, Microsoft decided (MSFT) He toyed with the idea of ​​buying the company, though the deal ultimately fell through.

CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella He said he was “Kind of interesting” By possibility and thought it might be a good fit since TikTok is based on cloud infrastructure and also uses artificial intelligence.

inspiration (ORCL) And Walmart (And die) They join forces to put on a show even though their efforts may also be fruitless. Walmart has expressed interest in TikTok E-commerce applications In addition to its international advertising prowess, which can help Walmart reach new target audiences.

However, none of the above companies have been shortlisted for a takeover in 2024. Some of the parties rumored to be interested include:

• Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who says he has put together a group of investors but has not yet publicly disclosed it.
• Conservative video sharing app Rumble, which published Display message On X.
• Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, although he has not personally confirmed interest.
• Shark Tank judge Kevin O’Leary, who told CNBC he’s interested in buying TikTok on the cheap. Steep discount.
• Axios suggested additional candidates: General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, and Susquehanna International Group.

The price that US operations might bring is far from clear. The big question is whether the deal will include the all-important algorithm; TikTok said the Chinese government would not allow this.

Analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities He proposed in March The sale of TikTok’s US business could reach $100 billion – using the algorithm. Without that, the price drops to $40 billion.

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