The Last Futurist dissects controversial Chinese app TikTok

- By Phil Siarri , Nuadox -



In this age of “tech cold war”, one Chinese mobile application that has gotten a lot of attention is TikTok. Launched in 2016, the social media app now boasts more than 1 billion users (including 10% and 25% US and India-based users respectively). The Last Futurist recently dissected the success and challenges TikTok has been facing in recent times.

Michael Spencer, the founder and editor of The Last Futurist, wrote:

The app allows users to post 15-second videos with music overlaid. People might post a video of them lip syncing to a song or other activities. But U.S. politicians are worried that the company censors content on its platform and are concerned about its collection of data. Also, TikTok has been criticized by US senators for censorship, privacy, and child safety. With an audience that skews heavily towards teenagers, TikTok has a bunch of influencers that can help the company reach users. TikTok has also improved its advertising prospects to threaten Alibaba and Baidu at home in mainland China. ByteDance, owner of video-sharing app TikTok, took a larger chunk of the digital advertising market than fellow Chinese companies Tencent and Baidu, during the first half of 2019. In 2020 it will even be taking on Spotify with a different kind of music streaming experience it’s been testing out in 2019. While ByteDance is an AI company it’s also been experimenting a lot in 2019. And apparently so have creative centric global youth.

Video: “tik toks that get me ready for winter break” by Succculent, YouTube.





TikTok, the short-form video app that’s been downloaded 1.5 billion times, is one of the most exciting and goofiest places on the internet, but it’s all by design as China seeks to export its AI and cultural influence upon the world. Also there’s no real rule of law on TikTok, as evidenced by how they have been suppressing the creations by the disabled, minorities and uncheerful content like protest-speak. Not all of the promoted videos on TikTok are properly labeled as ads or promoted posts, creating potential FTC violations in advertising as well, it’s the wild-wild west of Chinese exportation of a viral app. TikTok has been growing more popular among U.S. teenagers at a time of growing tensions between the U.S. and China over trade and technology transfers. The CEO of the influencer marketing agency Obviously, estimates that at least 75% of brands that reach out to her are interested in adding TikTok as a place to advertise. China is therefore increasing its impact on global advertising revenues and if it continues it could one day threaten the likes of Facebook and Google.

> Read the entire article at The Last Futurist

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