With the recent TikTok debacle and short-lived exodus to other, alternative video-sharing apps, it became abundantly clear how much of a lasting impact and chokehold video-sharing platforms have on modern culture.
Apps such as TikTok and YouTube have become as essential to the average netizen’s digital environment as Google and for many, especially younger demographics, perhaps even more so. Though, there have been countless controversies involving pretty much every such platform, they’ve truly entrenched themselves as irreplaceable in the public consciousness for the foreseeable future, for better or worse.
Though video hosting services have been around since the late ’90s, they only began to truly gain any traction in the mid-2000s when broadband internet became more accessible to the wider public, enabling faster uploads and downloads of video content. YouTube, launched in 2005 was a pioneer in this space, with its simple interface allowing anyone to easily upload, share and discover videos, democratising content creation.
Early viral videos, such as ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’, and ‘Chocolate Rain’, showcased the platform’s popularity and reach through fun, modest user-generated content, racking up view counts and attention unheard of by that period, even by traditional mainstream media standards. YouTube’s acquisition by Google in 2006 solidified its dominance, making it synonymous with online video. Other platforms soon emerged, each offering unique approaches to video sharing. Platforms such as Dailymotion, Vimeo and Metacafe provided alternatives but never quite matched YouTube’s popularity.
Creativity and humour
As smartphones became ubiquitous, the demand for mobile-friendly, short-form content grew. This trend led to the emergence of apps such as Vine in 2013. Vine’s six-second video format seemed to be inferior to platforms of the likes of YouTube at first, but it quickly became clear that the limitation only encouraged creativity and humour in a concise format, giving rise to a different genre of internet celebrities and viral memes. Despite its popularity, Vine struggled with monetisation and competition, leading to its shutdown in 2017.
With the loss of Vine, a majority of its creators would migrate to other platforms such as YouTube and adapt their content accordingly. Though the audience for short-form video content still existed, immediate replacements such as Byte, made by Vine’s co-founder, fizzled out quickly, but a true successor would come soon after.
Easy-to-use editing tools
TikTok, launched globally in 2018 by Chinese tech company ByteDance, hit the ground running with a strong existing audience base in China as Douyin and by acquiring and integrating another app with a relatively strong global audience, called Musical.ly. TikTok’s format focuses on short, looping videos with a strong emphasis on music, trends and easy-to-use editing tools. Its algorithm, designed to personalise content recommendations, quickly became its hallmark, keeping users engaged for hours, racking up user watch times that eclipsed all its competitors, sometimes to an addictive degree.
The early appeal of TikTok was its community-driven culture, wherein users could collaborate on challenges, remixes and duets, fostering creativity and participation. The platform also appeared to democratise virality; with anyone able to go viral regardless of their follower count as the algorithm seemed to prioritise content and engagement over popularity.
Popular with younger audiences
Over time, TikTok garnered more than its fair share of criticism, a lot to do with its data collection practices and content moderation. Though its demographics have varied quite a bit since its global launch, TikTok is ultimately most popular with younger audiences, including minors and the app has been criticised for exploiting them with addictive algorithms that prioritiae engagement as well as platforming misinformation and harmful trends such as with the infamous Blackout Challenge which resulted in fatalities.
TikTok has also been observed to be lax in its enforcement of content guidelines, with harmful or inappropriate content slipping through the cracks. On the opposite end of the spectrum, accusations of censorship have also been levied, with critics claiming that TikTok suppresses content related to sensitive topics such as human rights abuses and political dissent, particularly in regions like China.
Beyond the usual data collection problems that social media platforms bring up, ByteDance’s alleged connections to the Chinese government have also given rise to concerns about sharing user data with Chinese authorities, which they’ve repeatedly denied doing.
Despite these controversies, TikTok remains immensely popular with over a billion active users worldwide. TikTok’s success has inspired competitors. Instagram introduced Reels, YouTube launched Shorts and Snapchat and Facebook continue to innovate their video features. Though the success of these attempts varies, TikTok has remained the top dog in its space. But as video-sharing platforms continue to evolve, the focus remains on personalisation, interactivity, and accessibility.
