What makes TikTok Tick?
A perspective from an Asian-American Ad-Tech executive
Let’s talk about it.
There’s been an abundance of social media platforms that boast the privileges and unique elements of a platform of like TikTok. Lest we forget the fleeting excitement surrounding Vine and less-fleeting popularity of SnapChat — micro-moments, micro-videos and micro-etcetera were all the rage over the course of the past decade.
So what makes TikTok worthwhile? What makes TikTok more than, say, a poor man’s MySpace, a diluted Mixi, or a tone-deaf iteration of any other tried-and-failed version of a social media platform?
Here is an answer for you: Setsubun in Japan.
Setsubun is a time-honored tradition, whereby Japanese children are scared to death (usually by their fathers, dressed as oni or devil-like creatures), who invade their homes. The tradition typically requires young children to throw beans at these oni to cast them out, as a symbol of their power over evil for the upcoming year.
Now, if you were to type #setsubun into IG, YT, or TW, there’s no doubt you’d find some endearing videos of kids throwing beans at their parents. But if you were to do the same on TikTok, you’d be swamped with laughable, adorable — bankable — videos of the same sort. That is to say, TikTok has perfected the business model of previous social microvideos like Vine — to create a platform that encourages user generated content ad nauseam.
Don’t believe me? Just type #節分 into TikTok and find just how likely parents are to trade off their kids’ psychiatric wellness for millions of views.
There’s no doubt that this platform has room to grow — and that means, of course, room for risk — but that also means there’s room for brands to make a name for themselves using a platform that has increasingly catered to the new generation of young Asian consumers — something which will become increasingly bankable — for willing brands in the near future.