Most of TikTok’s prominent features come from Musical.ly, but what you might not know is that Musical.ly came very close to failure.

One of the main draws of TikTok is its elaborate algorithm that quickly figures users’ tastes and preferences based on how they engage with the app. In August 2018, ByteDance released the global version of Douyin, TikTok. ByteDance eventually closed down the Musical.ly app and incorporated most of its features into Douyin. “Musers”) to create and share short 15-second lip-sync videos on their platform. In November 2017, ByteDance acquired another social media app called Musical.ly - which allows users (a.k.a. TikTok was created by Chinese tech giant ByteDance and was first released in September 2016 under the name “Douyin”, which was marketed as a video-sharing social networking service similar to Facebook and Instagram (both of which are banned in China).

‍ Context - Musical.ly Merger and Going Global In this article, we’ll be using 3 “C”s to understand TikTok’s rise to popularity - Context, Content and Community. With more businesses turning to TikTok to market their brand, along with the wide press coverage surrounding a potential TikTok ban in the USA, we’ve taken this opportunity do a deep dive on the subject for our audience - so that you can gain a better understanding of the platform, and make an informed decision on whether or not TikTok is a worthy investment for your brand. TikTok currently boasts 800 million active users worldwide with over 2 billion downloads on the App Store and Google Play - an impressive feat for a platform launched in 2016, which now competes with the likes of Facebook (2004), Twitter (2006) and Instagram (2010).

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