The video-sharing app has gained a massive following of young users. The challenge will be to turn that popularity into a moneymaking business.
Even in the annals of viral apps, TikTok is a standout. Since debuting two years ago, it has been downloaded 950 million times—mostly by teens seeking snippets of entertainment or looking to share their own rapping, dancing, or magic skills with the world.
TikTok is so popular in fact that, by one measure, it ranks among a who’s who of tech. During the first three months of this year, it was the third most downloaded app worldwide, ahead of Facebook and Instagram, and just behind WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower.
“TikTok’s all about these scrappy viral videos shot with no budget and low production,” says Randy Nelson, head of mobile insights at Sensor Tower. “Unlike on Instagram or YouTube, which are far beyond their maturation point, TikTok’s a Wild West.”
Still, with the growth, TikTok is quickly morphing from its roots in amateurish lipsynching clips to a destination for more elaborate videos cut with increasingly sophisticated editing tools. Reenactments of movie comedy scenes and cooking tutorials are just some of what’s popular on the app.
But video apps are a particularly fickle business, as users inevitably flock to the next big thing. They’re also notoriously difficult to make money from—so much so that few, if any, have ever turned a profit.
This story is from the July 2019 edition of Fortune.
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This story is from the July 2019 edition of Fortune.
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