{"id":1451,"date":"2023-03-30T18:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T18:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/mist5720\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2023-03-30T20:08:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T20:08:52","slug":"tiktok-the-beginning-and-maybe-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/mist5720\/tiktok-the-beginning-and-maybe-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok: The Beginning and (maybe) the End?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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 \u201ceducation was against human nature,\u201d 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 \u2013 I vividly remember my sister dragging my infant looking self to participate in a video where we\u2019d lip-sync the intro of J-Kwon\u2019s song \u201cTipsy\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TikTok Part 1: An Epiphany on a Train<\/a><\/h4>

Listen to this episode from Foundering on Spotify. Alex Zhu, a Chinese tech entrepreneur, was seated on a train in Silicon Valley across from a group of teenagers. He watched as the kids were listening to music and making videos on their phones, and he decided to create an app that combined the two cultural obsessions.<\/p><\/blockquote>