All you need to know about TikTok
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00:00Oh, hello there. Sorry, I was just catching up on my TikToks. For this video about TikTok.
00:11How convenient.
00:14Hi, I'm technology writer Matt Mohn-Hickson, and we're going to be looking through the
00:19history of TikTok, what it is, and who are some of the most popular people on the app
00:25at the moment. So, let's start with the history of it, shall we? TikTok began in 2016 in China.
00:32It's called, in China it has a different name, it's called Doujin. I've probably butchered
00:37the pronunciation of that there, so apologies to any Chinese speakers or Chinese people
00:43watching this video. And it was owned by a company called ByteDance. They changed the
00:48name when they moved to launch the app outside of China, so that's where TikTok came from.
00:55The name was a new name that they used when it launched internationally in 2017. Since
01:01it's launched then, it's become one of the most popular apps on the planet. It's one
01:04of the most downloaded, free to use apps. It's have billions of users now. It's, you
01:10know, it's dominated. Your kids are probably talking non-stop about it. I know I've downloaded
01:16it and maybe I'm not quite the target demographic, but there we go. It has faced some controversies
01:23and issues in recent years. You know, there's popular creators have been accused of appropriating
01:30dances from minorities. Often it's, you know, often using dances that have been invented
01:35or associated with minority groups, particularly say African Americans in the United States.
01:42So that's been some criticism. There's issues in the U.S. where they have signed a bill
01:49to force TikTok to sell itself to a American company until they've been owned by the Chinese
01:55company ByteDance or it'll be banned from the U.S. Obviously that's going to play out
02:00over the coming months, probably years. There'll be more legal battles and challenges and plenty
02:05more to come on that. Beyond that, you're probably wondering what's the most popular
02:09stuff on TikTok in 2024, just so if you hear kids saying these things. So some of the popular
02:15stuff includes ASMR, which is where people do things and like make sounds and, you know, like pop,
02:24um, pop bubble wrap and things like that, that are sort of like pleasing sounds like, you know,
02:30quiet, speak quiet, which I'm probably not doing in this video, but yeah, let's, let's go with that.
02:37In terms of what people do on TikTok, obviously the most famous stuff and probably the stuff your
02:43kids do the most is dances. So you might remember the floss from a few years ago,
02:48um, but there's new ones all the time. Uh, as mentioned, obviously that is a bit of agraria
02:55because there's issues of appropriating dances from communities without properly crediting,
03:02as been mentioned earlier in the video. The most popular content creator on TikTok at the moment
03:09in terms of like likes, follows, subscribes, all that stuff is an Italian guy called Cabi Lame.
03:15I'm probably butchering that name, but yeah, he is the guy on TikTok currently. He's known for his
03:22like deadpan videos, very like deadpan reaction. There's Jimmy Donaldson, AKA Mr. Beast. He's the
03:28third most popular person on TikTok at the moment. And then Will Smith's actually really
03:32popular on TikTok. So the Fresh Prince is reinventing himself for the modern world,
03:38which is, you know, quite the, you know, bounce back after all that stuff with the Oscars a few
03:44years ago. In terms of where TikTok is going to grow, obviously there's, there's talks that they're
03:49going to put in like group chats. That's one of the features that they don't have at the moment.
03:53They're always expanding features and will bring you all the new features when they come.
03:58But yeah, it's, it's going to be around for a long time. At least, you know, if Twitter and
04:04Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest and all them are, you know, sure where it's going to go. So
04:11it's stuck with us for a while. So there'll be plenty more dances that your kids will be
04:15pestering you to learn. There'll be crazes and food trends and all that sort of stuff for you to
04:22watch out for. So yeah, that's, that's the state of TikTok in 2024. And I've been tech writer Matt
04:28Moan-Hickson. Please read the full article below and thank you. If you have any tips, let me know.