The first hot new social media in many years is finally here: Tik Tok.
And it’s addictive.
The endless scroll of popular videos that mix in dancing, comedy and just randomness keeps people in the app for long periods of time.
Out of everyone I’ve talked to, no one makes Tik Toks, but they all watch them.
With a unique ability to get content creators hundreds of thousands of views with relative ease, there’s a big draw for prolific creators. Unlike instagram, though, it’s unclear if there will be enough content creation from your average user. Making a Tik Tok is fairly easy, but it takes planning, recording and some light editing. It’s not the two or three minute endeavor that posting your dog on Instagram is. Making a high quality Tik Tok requires a lot of forethought.
Who knows what will come of this platform. I think they will continue to grow because it’s so entertaining, but eventually the difficultly to create may hinder the democratization of content uploading on the platform. Although that may not be a platform-ending issue. What may pose long term issues is the introduction of sponsored posts and creators. Where will money come into play?
Inevitably the push to monetize will challenge the norms of the platform and could hurt the free flowing, anyone-can-be-famous nature of the platform.