A little less than two years ago, I listened to a series of podcast episodes released by Bloomberg called Foundering: The TikTok Story. It gave a wonderful deep dive into the creation story of what has become TikTok. The early days were fascinating to learn about, as the origin begins with Musical.ly when Alex Zhu observes a group of teenagers playing with their phones on a train in California; half were listening to music, and the other half were taking videos and selfies. At the time, Alex was building an education video platform, but from his experience on the train, he had an epiphany that “education was against human nature,” and that a combination of social media, music, and videos is what is most powerful and captivating, especially for teenagers. Zhu went on to aggressively build Musical.ly in 30 days, and it launched in July 2014. It was headquartered in Shanghai with an office in San Francisco. The app became popular with over 200 million users by May 2017 – I vividly remember my sister dragging my infant looking self to participate in a video where we’d lip-sync the intro of J-Kwon’s song “Tipsy” talking about underage drinking. Being amid the rise in popularity of other social media apps where any sense positive affirmation was the goal, my sister was enthralled with the likes and comments from friends on her latest Musical.ly post. This new (videos+music=fun) formula was taking form fast as Alex Zhu expected, and it is very clear to see the relationship between the vision, beginning, and present day result.
Musical.ly was acquired by ByteDance later in 2017 for $1 billion, and it eventually merged with and became TikTok in August of 2018. The fact that ByteDance is a relatively new Chinese internet technology company has been a prominent discussion recently due to the fact that, under Chinese law, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can force “ByteDance to turnover U.S. user data and manipulate content displayed on the app.” The other main company BytDance owns is Tuotiao, which specializes is China’s most popular news app that directs a news feed based on a powerful recommendation algorithm. Sound familiar? Now I am unsure of whether or not the Chinese law applied to Musical.ly (remember its headquarters were in Shanghai). What’s really crazy about TikTok is how many people use and love it. How much do they love it? To the point where the average teen spent 91 minutes per day on the app. If that’s the average, think about how high that range could be.
The scrutiny against TikTok isn’t necessarily new, as Trump announced in 2020 that they had 45 days to be sold to a new American parent company – a threat that TikTok dismissed by filing an injunction. In January, a Republican senator introduced a bill to ban TikTok for all Americans after it was already recently banned from all federal government work devices. Today, the Biden administration has stated that it wants Chinese owners to sell the app or face a possible ban. Many people (especially on Twitter) have been giving the US Congress some heat after their “abysmal performance” trying to ask questions to TikTok CEO Shou Chew in his testimony with regards to TikTok’s possible infringement on American security. Check out some examples below.
As you can see, the entire debate around TikTok is a hard thing to grasp for many people in the US government who maybe aren’t “hip” enough to ask questions and make informed decisions. Even further, since the start of attempting to blog my ideas with regards to the subject matter at hand, news of a RESTRICT Act has risen to the surface of some media outlets. If this gains some momentum, it will need an entirely new blog post to break it down. At first glance, it looks like the potential for a serious invasion of privacy. Hopefully it’s not true.
My theory? The US wants to ban TikTok because it feels threatened, not by the possibility of China knowing user’s interests (because every tech company knows that at this point), but by the fact that a Chinese company has simply risen to be in charge of (arguably) the biggest app in the world. US Congress is scrambling because it’s another large thing as of late that China is doing to prove themselves in the fight against the US to be the most advanced and powerful country in the world.
My writing is intended to be a discussion. Why do you think the US is pushing to try to ban the most popular app in the world? Can an app be too good? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Cheers.
Great post. I will be interested to see whether TikTok lasts for a while or if its one of those faddish social media sites that is all the rage for a bit and then disappears as fast as it rises up.
Hey Joseph! TikTok has always been a controversial social media app, and I am curious to see how much more TikTok will be scrutinized for its data privacy issues further into the future. I think the US is pushing to ban TikTok because of the risk it puts on American’s data security and the threat of how powerful the app can be.
Hey Joseph, this was a great topic to touch especially when TikTok’s founder has been in communication with Congress regarding the value of TikTok and if it is causing a detriment to the United States of America. Many people do not realize that Tiktok came from musically and all it took was taking time to observe as Alex did on a Train. In my opinion, this is how revolutionary companies are created just as in Facebook with Zuckerberg. Let’s see what I can come up with.
I believe it’s more so about the fact that the United States is not the one in charge of the data. The greatest takeaway from the hearing is that their mind is already made up and CEO Chew could not say anything to change their mind in that hearing. The “abysmal performance” shown by Congress is hilarious. Personal favorite moments were the congressman asking if TikTok connects to wifi and another calling the platform Tic Tac
HI Joseph! I like how you centered this discussion around the video+music=fun equation. People can’t seem to get enough enjoyment from TikTok, and an average of 91 minutes per day on the app for a teen is a wild stat. I’m not sure banning the app is the correct approach, and people will fill the void with other apps. Instagram reels and YouTube shorts are becoming increasingly identical to TikTok. I agree with your theory that the US feels threatened by TikTok being a Chinese company, and I really hope the RESTRICT Act does not pass.
Hi Joseph, I really liked how much you added to your blog to enhance the content. The Twitter videos and graph help illustrate the TikTok situation. I agree that a big reason that the United States wants to ban TikTok is to remain in the lead of other nations for having the largest social media platforms. However, I think that the privacy issue is still concerning as there was a video made about a recent TikTok update that might allow the app to track your activity on other apps on your phone, not just TikTok. With that being said, I don’t see TikTok being banned in the United States, but there might be restrictions on it. Overall, great post and I agree with your stance on the TikTok situation!
Hey Joseph! I really enjoyed your blog post and like that you made it open-ended for us to reply to. I agree that the US is most uncomfortable with TikTok because they do not control it. The fact that it is owned and operated by the Chinese is the scariest part for the United States. I find it scary how much time TikTok takes out of people’s day-to-day lives and what it can do to our dopamine and serotonin levels. However, US apps are trying to do the same thing to get us sucked into our devices.
Hi Joseph.
I think that this focus is a great one for debate. I think governing bodies don’t like the non-ability of control. As a result, governing bodies either want to get rid of TikTok or control it. In my opinion, TikTok isn’t owned by anyone but rather by billions of users. Although you may be able to craft algorithms to direct attention, the lifespan of attention is so small on this platform you cannot brainwash. Therefore, I do not find TikTok to be threatening but rather a talking for society and culture to hyper-focus on.
Hey Joseph, I would have to agree with you on a lot of the opinions you stated. The main one is how the US feels threatened by China having potentially the biggest app in the world. However, I also believe it to be a national security issue too. We might be going to war with China soon, and allowing them to potentially have so much data and access to each person in an opposing country is a worry. I wonder if TikTok will continue to grow like this, or if it will start to plateau like other apps have.
Great post! I enjoyed learning more about the origins of Tik Tok and thought the trial videos you included shed light on the lack of understanding by American legislation leaders. By now, I would have thought they would have more knowledgeable prosecutors in court seeking out answers, but it was clear that the questions being asked showed a huge lack of understanding. I think tik tok should be used with caution and agree with the decision that it should be banned on government devices, but as far as personal use, people take the risks upon themselves.
Great post Joseph! I enjoyed hearing your take on the situation, and I mostly agree with what you said. Hearing the TikTok CEO answer questions apart of the questioning, made me feel confident in his control over the company, and that all the concerns are to be addressed.
Great blog post! It’s interesting to learn about the origins of TikTok and how it has become one of the most popular apps in the world. You raise some good questions about why the US government is so intent on banning the app, and whether it’s because they feel threatened by China’s rise in the tech industry. It’s a topic worth discussing and exploring further.
Ahh I have so many theories on this topic. I for one absolutely love Tik Tok. I agree with some of the comments saying that it’s not good for your mental health to be on your phone so much and it effects your attention span and all that, which I do agree with, but that’s true of all social media and if it wasn’t Tik Tok, it would be something else that we would be wasting time on if we wanted to. That being said, I have never felt so in the loop, educated, and connected with people around the country and world as I have from Tik Tok. I agree that the US feels threatened by Tik Tok’s popularity and just wants to have control of it. I remember a few years ago when Tik Tok was about to get banned and I kept hearing that they were concerned that China was pushing their political ideas onto Gen Z through Tik Tok and the government didn’t want that. I think it’s suspicious though that more young Americans showed up to vote in 2020 than in previous years due to Tik Tok and it caused an unexpected outcome. We’ll see what happens but if they ban Tik Tok, it will be replaced very quickly.
Great post Joseph. Our generation is unique in the fact that we understand the landscape of Tik Tok and social media as consumers but also can evaluate the political power battle. The information war between the US and China has been interesting to watch and in my expert opinion, believe we are only shown the tip of the iceberg.
Great post Joseph! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on TikTok and its history. I completely agree with your concerns about the app’s ownership and the potential implications it could have on user data and content manipulation. It’s interesting to see how the app has evolved from its origins as Musical.ly and how it has become so popular among teens.