TikTok

What This Book Covers

1. Chapter One - Before the Scroll
2. Chapter Two - Born in Beijing
3. Chapter Three - Musical.ly Meets Its Match
4. Chapter Four - The Algorithm Advantage
5. Chapter Five - The World Watches
6. Chapter Six - Governments Take Notice
7. Chapter Seven - The Copycats
8. Chapter Eight - Creators and Careers
9. Chapter Nine - Power and Pressure
10. Chapter Ten - The Scroll Continues

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE Before the Scroll BEFORE TIKTOK, THERE was Vine. Before Vine, there was YouTube. And before YouTube, there was television — a one-way stream of content, broadcast from studios to screens, one hour at a time. But as the internet matured, something changed. The screen got smaller. The content got shorter. And people started scrolling instead of watching. It didn’t happen overnight. First came YouTube, launched in 2005 — the pioneer of user-generated video. Suddenly, anyone could upload, anyone could become a star. But videos were still long. People sat down to watch them. Then came Vine, in 2013. Six seconds. That was the limit. It was absurd — and brilliant. Loops of humor,...