TikTok is everywhere. You may have seen the ads on TV, or came across the short video clips on Facebook or Twitter. In fact, you have may not even know that they were TikTok video clips.
If not, you maybe asking your self. What is TikTok? The app was one of the most popular apps downloaded in 2019 and afterward in 2020.
In fact it was downloaded over 1 billion times. Below are answers to many of the questions you may have regarding the fast growing and popular social media platform.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to post short video clips. The video clips can be shared throughout their platform and on other social media networks. Their growth has caught the attention of both Snapchat and Facebook. In fact, Facebook released their own app (Lass0) that mimics the features of TikTok.
The company that started TikTok is called ByteDance. They are a Beijing based company, which was started in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. In 2018 TikTok app acquired the assets of Musically, merging the two to become the platform that it is now.
What is the point of TikTok?
There are many social media apps. As with other social media apps, the main point of the apps is to share and connect with friends and family. TikTok is not different.
The social media app allows for individuals to create short videos, many of them lip syncing to popular musical song then share those videos both on TikTok platform and other social media sites.
What does TikTok Mean
While this may surprise some, but the word TikTok does have some meaning. In Mandarin, TikTok means vibrating sound, which is fitting for the TikTok app, which allows users to share music clips of themselves online.
Is TikTok Safe?
There are a couple ways to think of safe. The first way is it a blatant virus or malware? Is it harmful to your phone or your computer? No, there is nothing to indicate that the app is blatantly harmful.
Since the app owners are China based there are some concerns that the app can be used by the Chinese government to extract information.
The US military has recommend that its soldiers don’t install the app on their phones as a safety precaution. US Intelligence agency also have issued warnings about the app for US citizens.
There are also concerns about how much data the app sends back to its servers, many of which could be in China. Along with who has access to that data.
Can TikTok Track you?
While TikTok has and needs access to your camera and /photo/video library in order to record and share video clips.
However, in order to access your GPS location data, it will ask your permission for that information. You do not have to allow the app to access the GPS data on your phone. The app will work perfectly fine without it.
How to Get Started on TikTok
Once you downloaded the app, you’ll need to sign up for an account, just like you would on any social media platform.
You can sign up with your phone number/email or you can use your other social media logins like Facebook/Instagram/Google or Apple ID to use as a login for the app.
The next step, will ask you for your birthday
If you select phone, it will prompt you to enter your phone number.
One you enter your phone number, it will at that time send you an verify pin via text message.
Once you confirm the pin you received, it will ask you to create a password. (One suggestion is not to use the same password that you use on other social media sites.) Its that easy.
How Does TikTok make money?
ByteDance makes money the same way other social media platforms make money, by running advertising. They currently allow users to promote their product or services.
They system isn’t automated yet, so if your interested in advertising on TikTok you will have to places ads through a company rep.
Is TikTok Musically?
You may hear TikTok and Musically being interchanged with each other, no your not hearing it wrong. TikTok acquired Musically and rebraded the platform as TikTok.
In part to expanded beyond just lip syncing videos. As a result, some people still will interchange musically/TikTok.
Is TikTok Shutting Down?
On October 26, 2018 a screen shot, made its rounds on social media thanking everything for their hard work and announcing that TikTok was shutting down. You can consider this Fake News, since the screenshot was never released by the company. TikTok is still active and is not shutting down.
Is TikTok Down?
There is a few things you can do to see if the TikTok app is down. The first thing you want to do is to see internet connect is working. You can do that by going to a website like Yahoo.com on your device.
Seeing if you see today’s information. You can try a couple other websites sites. If you have no problem accessing other websites. Then the issue is problem related to your app/TikTok then.
The other option is checking the following website https://downdetector.com/status/tiktok/ You want to look to see if there is a large increase TikTok issues.
If there isn’t, you may want to do a hard reset of the app. If that doesn’t work, you may want to try rebooting your device. Hopefully, these steps will help resolve the issues you are having.
How to Download TikTok Videos?
Have you come across a video on TikTok that you absolutely love and want to save to your device or computer? Here is how you can download TikTok videos to your computer. Follow the steps below to download TikTok videos.
- Open the TikTok App
- Find the video you want to save
- Press the Share button within the TikTok App
- Click on Save Video
The video will be saved to the album on your device. From there you can move it over to your desktop computer via Dropbox or even email It to your self and save it on the device/computer you want.
Alternately, if you are more about the human touch and direct interaction, Omegle is always a great choice!
How to download TikTok
TikTok can be downloaded onto your Android or iOS smartphone device. For Android, go to your Google Play or other Android App Store and search for the TikTok App.
For iOS, you can open the app store app on your iOS phone, search for TikTok and download the Official TikTok App.
The TikTok app was one of the 5 most popular downloaded apps in 2019, its user base and popularity is growing. After the App is downloaded to your smartphone, you will need to go through the registerion process and setup an account.
TikTok Login
The TikTok login is how you access the TikTok app on your phone. The login information, whether social media, your phone number, or your email that you used to initially sign up will be used to login to TikTok.
First thing you need to do is open your app. Click on the me option in the bottom right hand corner, click on sign up. (I know confusing)
At the bottom of the Sign up For TikTok page is an option for users that already have an account with them.
Already have an account? Log in
You will need to select the same login method that you used to create your account. There is also an option to get login help if you are having issues logging into your account.
Can you make money on TikTok?
There are many reasons why people join social media platforms, some join to connect with family and friends, others for the information and the community and some join to build an audience, build up their frame and make money in the process.
Like any other social media platform, if you build a big enough audience, you can monetize it. While TikTok doesn’t pay creators directly, or have an ad platform like Google/Youtube has for their creators, there are ways to make money on TikTok
One of the most popular ways is through partnering with TikTok influencers to promote your products in their videos.
If your already on TikTok and built up an audience, there are companies that can help monetize that audience for you.
Conclusion
TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms, the app have been downloaded over a billion times last year, world wide. Owned by a Chinese company which is reported to be worth in the billions, the app has grown in popularity over the years.
We have covered some of the basics in this article. If your interested in TikTok, one of the things you can do is download the app and try it for your self.