TikTok wasn’t always at the forefront of viral internet culture, but since combining with Musical.ly, the company has seen unprecedented popularity. Where did it all begin?

TikTok has been a hotspot for viral material in recent years. This app covers everything, from viral dances to strange trends.

Its user base has become so large that the site can now drive songs like Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” to global popularity and convert regular teenagers like Addison Rae and Charli D’Amelio into overnight stars.

So, how did the platform evolve into what it is today?

ByteDance debuts Douyin in September 2016.

Before TikTok, there was Douyin, a Chinese app. The ByteDance-owned software was previously called A.me, but it was changed in December after a few months.

Within a year, the app had around 100 million users, and with over a billion videos viewed each day, the business was unquestionably a success. This piqued the company’s interest in venturing into the foreign market, and TikTok was born in September 2017.

Musical.ly is purchased by ByteDance in November 2017.

Musical.ly was formally launched in August 2014, and it had many of the same features as TikTok does now. Users may make short films lip-syncing to famous songs and engage with other users through trending sounds and hashtags.

ByteDance paid up to $1 billion US dollars on November 9, 2017 to acquire Mucical.ly, which has operations in both Shanghai and California.

On August 2, 2018, Musical.ly joined with TikTok, combining existing data and accounts to create one app and a larger community. The name was maintained as ‘TikTok,’ implying the demise of Musical.ly as it was known to users.

TikTok analytics that proves

TikTok surpasses one billion global downloads in February 2019. TikTok reached 1 billion downloads globally in February 2019, according to the analytics site Sensor Tower (excluding Android downloads from China.) The app was quickly gaining traction in nations such as India, which accounted for more than 40% of total downloads in 2018.

The merger with Musical.ly was a great success, and TikTok’s development showed no signs of stopping.

The major reason TikTok has grown so famous is because of its online community. To begin with, TikTok is available in 75 languages and 155 countries. As a result, almost anybody with an internet connection may become a part of the TikTok community. TikTok boasts some amazing user engagement numbers: each user spends an average of 52 minutes per day on the platform, and 1 million TikTok videos are viewed daily. 90% of TikTok users use the app on a regular basis, and 41% of TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24.

The “Duet” function, which allows users to film themselves alongside current TikTok videos in a split-screen format, is TikTok’s major community-building tool. Users can alternatively utilize only the audio from the original video, which is attributed as the “Original sound” at the bottom of the video. When you tap on the “Original sound,” you’ll be sent to the original TikTok video as well as any other TikTok videos that use the same “Original sound.” This motivates users to reply, parody, or perform with other TikTokers, and it’s simple to understand how memes and challenges may spread fast on TikTok as a result.

Any TikTok video may be downloaded and shared to other platforms; downloaded videos will feature the TikTok logo and the TikToker’s username by default. Users may also add links to their Instagram pages, YouTube channels, and Twitter accounts to their TikTok profiles, making it simple for them to expand their online presence.