The 1 billion download club... Big number, tiny membership. TikTok just got there faster than any company — just 2 years (that makes the 8 years Instagram needed look like a crawl). If you've never TikTok'd (we haven't either) here's what you should know:
- More raw, less polish: Instagram is for the polished life milestone like graduation day pics. TikTok is for sharing raw videos of yourself trying to karaoke Levon the night before graduation.
- Music-first: TikTok is where 2019's megahit "Old Town Road" got huge before radio even knew it.
- Gen Z is addicted: Over 60% of US TikTokers are under 24 — and they spend 52 valuable minutes per day on TikTok, flipping between videos.
- It's Chinese-owned: Which is causing squeamishness from US Senators worried that kids' data could get snatched by the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok's also a threat to Zuck... User-wise, TikTok is shockingly as big as Facebook's Instagram. The last company that threatened Insta's user growth was Snapchat — so Facebook copied its core feature with "Stories." It's doing it again with TikTok, yesterday unveiling "Reels:" 15-second music-videos users make of themselves, then pop into their story. It starts in Brazil, but is expected to rollout worldwide.
American companies knockoff Chinese innovation, too... Facebook might as well have called this "DikDok" -- it's a straight-up copy of TikTok's core feature, a defensive move to prevent users from leaving Zuck's apps. It's usually the other way around, but this Chinese-invented social media platform is getting duplicated by America's king of social media.