The Rise and Fall of TikTok As A Social Platform

TikTok is a social application from the Chinese company ByteDance. The application which is expected to grab the spot of Facebook turning into a leading social application is currently facing its downfall. Now, we are going to have a look into the roller coaster ride of this social platform.

The Unexpected Rise Of TikTok:

TikTok, which was launched in 2016, had 1.5 billion users at the end of 2018. Within the time period of two years since its launch, this social application achieved massive growth across all the countries. Facebook was awestruck by this social application’s growth and brought alterations to this social application to stop losing its user base to TikTok. Such is the evolution of TikTok. This short-video application TikTok made its entry when both Facebook and Instagram had almost the entire social media user base. Social media marketers and experts believed that Facebook and Instagram would remain the undisputed king of social media. But, the sudden surge in the user base of TikTok has left them stunned. In 2018, the Gen Z of the USA in TikTok was higher than that of Facebook. Thus, TikTok had a strong user base in the USA, the global superpower. You can buy TikTok likes or any cheapest smm panel and it will help you in having a strong presence..

According to a recent survey, nearly 60% of total users on TikTok are Gen Z. TikTok effortlessly drove Gen Z into it. Since this age group had a considerable interest in TikTok, it halted Facebook’s user base growth. The platform witnessed a massive rise in its user base across all the economic superpower countries. It had an impressive user count in the USA, India, and Canada. Following this, many B2C brands discarded Facebook and started to focus on TikTok to promote their products. Due to this, TikTok had billions of dollars as revenue in a period of two years. Thus, TikTok continued to accomplish new records by surpassing many hurdles that were put in front of it.  

TikTok and Influencer Marketing:

Social media marketing has gained an inevitable role for both B2B and B2C in the present scenario. Studies show that the major brands will have almost 85% of their sales through social platforms by 2022. Eventually, social platforms have evolved into a marketing medium to achieve their sales target for which they follow many tactics. Among the various sorts of marketing tactics, influencer marketing is regarded as the most potential tactic. Brands believe that through influencers, they could convince people easily to buy their products. 

TikTok is a platform that has more influencers than any other social application. The characteristics of this platform gave rise to a large number of influencers. For instance, TikTok is a place that is full of performers. The platform usually works in such a way that people will showcase their skills. Every TikTok video has an individual or a group of people shaking legs or singing or exhibiting their specific talent. 

The platform has helped many people find out their hidden talent, which in turn garnered them a huge follower base. Eventually, they evolved into influencers and fetched huge revenue. In such a way, there are many influencers on this platform. Hence, companies of all verticals jumped into this social application and collaborated with the influencers. All these factors lead to sustainable growth in the user base of TikTok.      

The Downfall:

TikTok started to have a downfall ever since it became entangled in the issue of a data breach. In 2018, the USA accused openly that it is suspicious about ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, handling the user data. It even went on to say that it is handing over the data of USA citizens to the Chinese government. These claims by the USA government raised concerns among the TikTok users globally. Meanwhile, reportedly, TikTok also claimed the lives of people. Generation Z, who are immersed in this platform, lost their lives by taking risks for creating TikTok videos. 

Thus, this social platform got embroiled in constant accusations that damaged this social application’s reputation to a greater extent. It was further accused that the platform failed to monitor the content surfing on the platform. In 2018, Indonesia temporarily banned the application stating that the platform has pornographic content and inappropriate content. However, it lifted the ban in a week, asking TikTok to censor the content and to have a strict vigil. Following this, many countries made an in-depth look into TikTok and started interrogating it. All these continuous accusations damaged the good name garnered by TikTok, which in turn affected its free functioning. This has made many companies that are promoting their products on TikTok think that this social application’s future is unstable. Therefore, many companies started to refrain from making a massive investment in this platform as they were suspicious about whether the platform will sustain itself for the long term. 

Advent Of New Social Platforms:

Facebook strived for many measures to halt the growth of TikTok. In 2018, it introduced a new social application known as Lasso. It was introduced as a separate application that had the exact characteristics of TikTok. However, it failed to gain momentum, and there was no rise in the user base of that social application. Eventually, the Facebook shut down that application last year. 

In 2020, Facebook introduced ‘Instagram reels’ that had the exact characteristics of TikTok. It was incorporated as a feature on Instagram. Thus, people can use Instagram reels in their Instagram applications. Since the survival of TikTok is at stake, even the TikTok influencers who are having a huge follower base have started making a shift to Instagram. Since Instagram reels possess the same nature as TikTok, coming up with new content does not seem to be a big deal for them. Some of the influencers have also uploaded their viral TikTok videos on Instagram reels. Since the top influencers are slowly switching to Instagram, it has started to impact the user base of TikTok.

On the other hand, Instagram is having a consistent surge in its new users. Thus, the growth of TikTok has come to a standstill as it is hard to have constant growth as it had before. Eventually, TikTok has lost importance among the brands, which will affect the revenue of this social application. 

Wrapping Up:

In June 2020, the Indian government banned TikTok and many other Chinese social applications, stating that it had taken such action for cybersecurity as it is suspicious about the way it handles the user data. India was the largest market for TikTok, being the country with the most TikTok users. The ban levied by the Indian government has worsened the situation of this social application further. TikTok, which had a vast growth growing into a competitor for Facebook at one point, is now almost heading towards its farewell.