What Is TikTok? How a Short-Form Video App Took Over the Internet?風靡全網的抖音究竟是何方神圣？

卡爾漢·羅森布拉特

The app， owned by a private company based in China， has gained a sizable user base—and its videos are suddenly all over the internet.抖音是中國私有公司推出的產品，擁有龐大的用戶群體。抖音視頻突然間在網上無處不見。

On TikTok， the app that is suddenly everywhere on the internet， a certain genre of videos all start the same way： a first-person view of an arm reaching into a refrigerator while the intro to the Village People1 song “YMCA”2 plays.

The person behind the camera pulls out some food—an egg or a piece of cheese or even a tortilla—walks it into another room， and， as the song’s horn section kicks in3， the food is whipped into the face of another person.

The video abruptly ends before showing the reaction of the person， sometimes literally with egg on their face.

The sneak attacks4 are just one of the many different jokes， pranks， memes and trends that trace their origin back to TikTok. And while the app has become wildly popular in its own right， videos created on its platform are making their way onto other platforms and across the internet.

A YouTube search turns up an almost inexhaustible list of TikTok compilations， and TikTok videos are routinely uploaded to Twitter， where they can amass5 millions of views.

TikTok， which launched in China as “Douyin” in September 2016， describes itself as a forum to “capture and present the world’s creativity， knowledge， and precious life moments， directly from the mobile phone.” It is owned by Bytedance， a startup based in China that is considered one of the world’s most valuable private companies.

TikTok users tap and hold to record a short video and can add music and visual effects. The videos can then be uploaded with hashtags to join a variety of topics and trends. Its functionality—and the creativity it has fostered—echoes the six-second video-sharing app Vine， which shut down in 2017.

Most of the videos， which tend to last around 15 seconds， show someone dancing， lip-syncing to a song or video clip， or pulling some kind of running gag6， but the app has also gained followings among some particular groups， most notably military personnel.

Adam Blacker， vice president of mobile research and communications at the mobile analytics firm Apptopia， said TikTok has grown fast， noting that it added 30 million users in one three-month stretch of 2018.

“People talk about the numbers with TikTok because they’re impressive， but what’s more interesting is its growth comes at a time when stalwart American social media apps have stagnated7 user growth，” Blacker wrote in an email. “Not only that， but TikTok is an app created in China that is having success in the United States. Outside of games， this is essentially unheard of.”

Blacker said Apptopia estimates TikTok had 251.2 million monthly active users as of December， which counts people across three apps： the U.S. version， a version popular in Asia， and a separate app only available in China.

The app’s users skew8 young， with Apptopia finding that people 11 to 20 make up its biggest contingent9， at 35 percent of all users， with 21- to 30-year-olds the next biggest， at 23 percent.

TikTok declined to comment on user data.

The U.S. version of TikTok was formerly known as Musical.ly before ByteDance acquired it in 2017 and rebranded it. The company has also worked to attract users in international markets， launching “lite” versions of its app in India and Indonesia， where wireless internet access isn’t as ubiquitous10.

Other companies have taken notice of TikTok’s success. In November， Facebook launched a nearly identical app called Lasso.

Part of the charm and attraction of TikTok is that its younger users have embraced it as a place to experiment with the kind of internet humor that hasn’t thrived on other platforms.

“In a world where everyone’s content inevitably begins to look the same， TikTok videos feel bizarre and new，” wrote The Atlantic’s Taylor Lorenz. “It’s an app full of people posting strange content to the internet with zero self-awareness or shame.”

Others have noted that the app offers a respite11 from other platforms that have become associated with abuse and hate speech. Kevin Roose in The New York Times called the app “a refreshing outlier in the social media universe” that brought him the rare sensation of “happiness.”

忽然之間，抖音已經風靡全網。在該應用上流行著這樣一類視頻，開頭都如出一轍：伴隨著鄉下人樂隊的《基督教青年會》歌曲前奏，鏡頭內只見一只手伸進了冰箱。

鏡頭后面的人拿出一枚雞蛋或一塊奶酪，甚至一塊墨西哥薄餡餅等食物，然后走入另一個房間，當歌曲的圓號部分響起時，猛地將食物甩到另一個人的臉上。

還沒來得及看清對方的反應，有時就是雞蛋糊在某人臉上，視頻便戛然而止。

這樣的偷襲只是抖音上形形色色的笑話、惡作劇、模仿和流行梗之一。抖音憑借自身特色迅速走紅，而該平臺創造的視頻則流傳到其他平臺，繼而風靡全網。

在“油管”上搜索一下，便能找到無數個抖音專輯。抖音視頻也會經常上傳到推特，并能累計數百萬的瀏覽量。

抖音是該應用的中文名，于2016年9月上線。該應用將自己描述成一個“用手機捕捉呈現世界創意、知識、美好生活瞬間”的平臺。抖音的所有者為中國創業公司字節跳動，被認為是全球最具價值的私有企業之一。

抖音用戶只需點擊按住中間按鈕即可錄制短視頻，視頻還能添加音樂和視覺特效，之后還可以打上標簽鏈接到各式各樣的流行話題里。抖音的功能及其催生的創意與6秒視頻分享軟件“藤”（Vine）如出一轍，該應用已于2017年關閉。

大多數抖音視頻的時長為15秒左右，內容要么是跳舞、給歌曲或視頻片段對口型，要么是抖出某種笑料，然而該軟件也得到了特定群體特別是軍人的關注。

移動分析公司應用烏托邦（Apptopia）的移動研究通信副總裁亞當·布萊克表示，抖音發展很快，在2018年僅3個月時間里便新增了3000萬用戶。

布萊克還在郵件中寫道：“人們對抖音出色的數據津津樂道，但更有意思的是，抖音的發展恰恰發生在美國社交媒體巨頭們用戶增長停滯的時期。不僅如此，抖音作為一款中國開發的應用在美國也大獲成功。除游戲以外，這幾乎是前所未聞的?！?/p>

布萊克稱，應用烏托邦估計自12月開始，抖音的月活躍用戶為2.512億，該數據包括美國版本、亞洲流行版本和中國獨立版本的用戶數。

該應用的用戶群偏年輕，據應用烏托邦統計，11—20歲是它的最大用戶群體，占總用戶的35%，21—30歲為次核心群體，占比23%。

抖音對其用戶數據不予置評。

抖音美國版的前身為悅音（Musical.ly），2017年字節跳動公司將其收購并重組品牌。該公司還大力吸引國際市場用戶，在印度與印度尼西亞推出了“輕”版抖音，因為無線網絡在兩國還不夠普及。

抖音的成功也引起了其他公司的注意。11月，臉書推出了一款名為“拉索”（Lasso）的應用，其功能幾乎與抖音一模一樣。

抖音的部分魅力在于年輕用戶把它當成一個實驗場所，可以嘗試其他平臺尚未流行的網絡幽默。

《大西洋月刊》的泰勒·洛倫茨寫道：“在個人生活漸趨雷同的世界里，抖音的視頻帶來了新奇感。充斥其中的用戶可以將奇奇怪怪的內容發布到網絡上，而不覺得難堪或羞恥?！?/p>

還有人注意到該應用可以讓人們短暫地擺脫其他平臺的言語暴力、仇恨言論。《紐約時報》的凱文·魯斯稱抖音為“社交媒體世界的一股清流”，給他帶來了少有的“幸?！备小?/p>