TikTok Through the Lens of the Diffusion Theory

TikTok logo (Via Pittsburgh Parent)

   TikTok is a very interesting example of an innovation that can be examined through the lens of the diffusion theory because of how recent it is, as well as because of the controversies surrounding it.

    Most users believe that TikTok began as Musical.ly, an app where users could create and post short lip-synching and comedy videos, however, many are not aware that TikTok began as it's own entity in 2017. ByteDance, a Chinese based tech company had an app similar to Musical.ly, called Douyin, that was extremely popular in China and Thailand. The company wanted to expand to the global market and did so with TikTok in 2017. In that same year, ByteDance saw the success of Musical.ly and bought the app out for up to $1 billion. By the latter half of 2018, they had combined it with the existing TikTok in order to maintain Musical.ly's users as well as continue to grow TikTok's reach. It is now a global app, available everywhere except China, where they still use Douyin, which is almost identical to its worldwide counterpart, just with some additional technical advancements.

    TikTok differs from Musical.ly in that the latter's market was heavily dominated by young people, with very little adult usage, and the content was mainly limited to lip-synching and comedy content. On the other hand, TikTok features users of all ages who have gained followings through a variety of types of videos, including but not limited to, dancing, singing, fitness/health, comedy, story-times, and even theories and news about popular shows, movies, and artists. Many companies have created accounts and used the app as a way to market their products, especially to Gen Z. In September 2019, the NFL announced a multi-year deal with TikTok in order to combat the decrease in youth interest in the professional football league. 

TikTok download statistics by quarter (via Business of Apps)

Looking at TikTok through the Diffusion Theory, the pioneers of the app were those who were active
on Douyin in China and Thailand, TikTok when it first launched globally, and Musical.ly when it was still its own company. Once ByteDance acquired Musical.ly and the app took off, between then and the end of 2018, when TikTok hit its first peak at 205.7 million downloads, is when the early adopters and early majority stages of the theory took place. The app continued to grow in 2019, however, at a much slower rate, thus showing the app had settled into the late adopters stage. Instead of then settling into the final laggards phase, in the first quarter of 2020, the number of downloads jumped to the highest it had ever been, with 315 million downloads. By quarter four though, the numbers had dropped down to 177 million downloads. The jump at the beginning of 2020 differs from Roger's Diffusion of Innovation theory, however, it is most likely the result of the COVID-19 pandemic that rocked the world at the beginning of the year. As people were forced to socially distance in their homes, they most likely turned to TikTok as a form of entertainment and a distraction. 

    The pioneers most likely used Musical.ly and the other apps because it was the closest thing people could get to Vine, an extremely popular app where people could post six second videos, which was discontinued in October 2016. The early adopters could've seen how TikTok was more diverse than Musical.ly in its content, which did not appeal to them on its own, so they decided to check out this new app. From that point on, as the early adopters began sharing TikToks on other forms of social media, which inspired the early majority to then partake in the app as well, as they became more aware of it. 

    I think there are two big reasons as to why people were late adopters. First, many people probably did not realize there was content on the app that would interest them. I think this strongly applies to adults who may have thought this was just an app for kids and teens, however, once they learned there are lots of "sides" of TikTok that can be applicable to them, such as cooking, fitness, and travel tips, more and more signed up. The other reason people may have been in the late majority could be due to their awareness of how addicting and time consuming the app can be. TikTok is designed to be addicting. The app has two feeds users can scroll through: "For You Page" (FYP) and "Following". While the latter consists of only videos created by users that you follow; it's the "FYP" that really sucks people in. This page is set up to be an infinite scroll, so users will never reach an end or a definite stopping point to their activity. The videos that appear on one's "FYP" are determined based primarily on an algorithm that takes past TikToks that you've interacted with, whether it be you liked, shared, commented on, or saved it, and used that information to push more videos that fit your liking and interests. This allows the content to continue to be interesting, therefore, keeping users' attention on the app for longer. I personally have many friends who still have not downloaded TikTok, even though they want to, because they are worried they will spend too much time on it and not on things that actually need their attention, like school. However, some finally have given into their urges and have joined the masses in the late majority who are using the app. 

    The logic of the time commitment that commonly comes with the app also applies to those who will never get it; they do not want to waste their time using it. I think another main reason people don't get the app is because of privacy concerns. As mentioned earlier, TikTok collects data about their users to create their "FYP", and because it's a Chinese owned company, there are many concerns about China collecting and storing people's information. In fact, in August of 2020, former President Trump announced that he would be banning all transactions with ByteDance in order to "address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain." As of publishing, this has not yet come to fruition. 

    Those who choose not download TikTok benefit by knowing that if ByteDance is storing data, theirs is not being collected on this app. From a privacy standpoint, there really are not positives to TikToks that outweigh those negatives. Although it is seen as a form of social media, it is not one that people should consider getting solely for a self-marketing standpoint for potential employers, like they would Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. In some past classes, I have learned that is is beneficial to be active on social media, at least to an extent, because it shows that you are comfortable with technology, however, at this point in time, unless someone is pursuing a career within a social media field or department, TikTok is not necessary to improve one's resume. The main benefit of TikTok is that people can learn helpful information, and it has even become a way to spread news. However, people should still follow-up the information they learn with additional research because anyone can make any sort of statement on that app and claim that it is completely factual, even when that is not the case. 

    In conclusion, while TikTok did follow Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Theory to an extent, it did experience an additional jump in popularity, most likely due to the pandemic. The people who have not downloaded TikTok are benefitting by keeping their data out of the hands of a big tech company. When deciding if someone wants to partake in a new communication technology, in this age, the main question they have to answer is if the want or need for the product outweighs the potential negative effects that would come with a company collecting data about them. In some situations, it is necessary for people to sacrifice part of their privacy in order to use the technology they need, however, in the case of TikTok, for the most part, there are no downsides to keeping the app off your phone.