THE TIKTOK GENERATION PART II

THE TIKTOK GENERATION PART II

The story of TikTok is a tale of two halves. In the West, teenagers grew up with the music-focused social app, Musical.ly. In the East, teenagers enjoyed Douyin (branded TikTok for the western world). In 2018, the apps joined together. There has been a meteoric rise of TikTok in a relatively short period.

Since TikTok’s merger with Musical.ly user numbers have soared. This is partly because of a smart marketing campaign by ByteDance (who own TikTok). They have advertised TikTok virtually everywhere that young people hang out – including opposition social sites, such as Snapchat and YouTube.

Yet, if you asked the average person about TikTok, most would claim never to have heard of it – certainly, if they are over 30 and not a parent. TikTok has one of the tightest demographics of any social network and remains virtually unknown to people outside that age range.

Celebrities Take an Interest in TikTok
With the rise of TikTok downloads, it became inevitable that celebrities and high-profile people would take an interest in the platform. As the Guardian reported, “The success of any burgeoning app is often tied to the early adoption of a key celebrity. The fortunes of Snapchat have been closely tied to the whims of Kylie Jenner, Instagram has Selena Gomez, and Twitter now has a certain Mr. Trump. For TikTok, late-night comedian Jimmy Fallon may be the user that pushes it over the edge in the United States.”

Jimmy Fallon spoke about TikTok videos on a segment on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in November 2018. He suggested that people might like to use TikTok to upload videos of themselves lip-syncing along to standup comedy routines. He encouraged viewers to take part in a series of challenges, such as the #TumbleweedChallenge, where people stop what they’re doing and roll around on the ground like a tumbleweed while an old western movie soundtrack plays.

Skateboarder, Tony Hawkes, is another who has taken to TikTok. He has a verified account with 2.5 million fans and 13.2 million hearts. While he has only shared a few videos to date, they have been hugely popular.

@tonyhawk
Even the Terminator now has a TikTok appearance., setting up his account in March. His early videos focus on fitness and health, and he has a customized hashtag, #likearnold. 

@arnoldschnitzel
Other celebrities with TikTok accounts include:

Jennifer Lopez
Amy Schumer
Paris Hilton
Swae Lee
Marshmello
Jason Derulo
Charlie Puth