The Design Innovation of Tiktok ​

During the lecture today, I realized that the success of the major applications used today could be explained by the novel, selling concepts at their core. I wanted to apply the same analysis Professor Jackson used during lecture to explain how Tiktok, a social media app for creating, editing, and sharing short form videos, came to be so pervasive.

Brief History of Tiktok ​

The short-form media was not an unfamiliar phenomenon before Tiktok. It was popularized around 2013 by Vine, an app that allowed users to create six second long clips. Vine was most notable for its comedic and quotable sketches. Musical.ly was invented shortly after; the playform primarily focused its content on lip-synching and dance videos. After it was acquired by ByteDance, it became TikTok.

Selling Concept ​

In the absence of Vine, TikTok filled satisfied the authentic demand for a short form video-based social media. I believe its rise to popularity around 2020 is also contextual -- screen-time increased significantly during the global pandemic in which many, especially those that were young, stayed in and scrolled for hours.

However, I believe much of TikTok's success could be attributed to its selling concept which is the idea of reusing sounds ("audios"). The ability to reuse sounds cultivated a new information and culture landscape. Users could replicate, add a twist to, or completely reinvent these audios by participating in viral trends or repurposing them for mini-sketches. By allowing for users to reuse audios, their content was fixed by one degree in the audio dimension but they were flexible to attach whatever visuals they wanted to the sound, resulting in much more creative content that everybody could easily engage with because of the familiar audio. By hearing the same sound over and over again, users may implicitly develop a bias for it and find themselves enjoying the content associated with it more.

The idea of reusing content on social media is not new (Twitter's retweet, Facebook's repost, etc.). However, I believe that sound is especially evocative as they carry the original context in which they were used.

Concept Design ​

concept: Audio
purpose: create an audio or re-use an existing one
principle: after an audio is created, it can be re-used by other users
state:
    ***
actions:
    create()
    use()

concept: Audio
purpose: create an audio or re-use an existing one
principle: after an audio is created, it can be re-used by other users
state:
    ***
actions:
    create()
    use()

The concept looks extremely simple but its novelty and flexible uses is what draws users to keep creating and engaging with content.

From this simple system, TikTok added on more features including the ability to "stitch" other videos, add filters to one's voice, include close captioning and fast forward.