Tik Tok has been gaining major traction in its popularity in recent months. Sensor Tower has detected Tik Tok hitting 1.5 billion downloads to date. The app has posed a major threat to Facebook and is still outperforming Instagram.

How Tik Tok Stands Out

What Tik Tok does really well is reduce the friction and distance between people and other information. The app has been the first major competitor since Snapchat, to disrupt the market that was once dominated by Facebook.

The Start & Stats

Created by China start-up ByteDance in 2016, TikTok clocked in 188 million more installs in this year’s first quarter, winning it the top spot again among social networking apps. Much of TikTok’s growth has been driven by an explosion of users in India, who accounted for 31% of the app’s downloads. Its second-biggest market was China which made up 11.5% of downloads, then the US with 8.2%. 

The Merge Advantage

The app merged with Musical.ly as a means to enter the U.S. market and today, has paid off; as it is placed at the top of the US App Store, above Facebook. 

Future of Tik Tok’s Data Privacy & Security

The young company, however has already come under fire from government regulators and parents for data-privacy concerns and what some critics call predatory practices on the app regarding children. Though not the first social media platform to come under fire for data privacy controversy, Tik Tok is set up for viral exchanges.