In the 2019 Mobile Phenomena Report, TikTok was #11 overall on mobile networks, coming out of nowhere. Normally, mobile-centric applications do not do well in the Global Report, as they get lost in the flood of high bandwidth video and download traffic. TikTok, despite being a mobile-focused application, climbed the charts this year significantly.
What is TikTok? In three words: really short videos.
TikTok positions the service in it's manifesto as, "TikTok is the world's leading destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world's creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter in everyday life. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones, and is committed to building a community by encouraging users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos."
What does that mean? A hybrid between YouTube and Instagram — not quite pure video, but not quite a social network either. Videos on the site are typically vertical, looping videos between 15 and 60 seconds in length. The application has extensive editing tools with special effects, and a massive music library. This library is not only for lip syncing (which is how music.ly started), but also for emphasis in videos — much like Instagram does.
TikTok is seen as the next frontier for advertising to the younger generation by brands, potentially usurping Instagram as a brand advertising platform, and TikTok has even just signed a partnership with the NFL, who is trying to take advantage of the young user base and the viral nature of popular videos.
TikTok rode viral lip syncing video traffic all the way to 34th worldwide (right behind Snapchat) with a strong growth from last year, when it was not even in the top 50 worldwide. If you haven't seen TikTok, you are probably over 30, and try to ignore what your children are doing and watching online.
If you have a service like TikTok (or any cool application or game) and want to make sure you are included in the Global Internet Phenomena Report, we have an API for that! Click here to check out out our API Gateway.
We are getting quite close now to the release of the report. Tomorrow, I will give away a bit of juicy data from the report — maybe something about the #1 application worldwide...what could it be?
Download the report now!