TikTok Partners With Shopify In The Middle East
Highlights
- TikTok for Business moves into social commerce with Shopify deal in the Middle East.
- Shopify merchants can now access TikTok for business Ads Manager without leaving the former’s dashboard.
TikTok recently extended a partnership agreement with Shopify to the Middle East after their collaboration last year. The partnership will enable brands to create shoppable video ads and campaigns directly geared towards TikTok’s high engaging community. Brands and advertisements are an integral part of the TikTok experience and customers in this region like to connect with their preferred brands. Shant Oknayan, general manager of global business solutions for TikTok in the Middle East, Africa, Turkey, and Pakistan says,
“We are very excited to announce this partnership with Shopify in the Middle East, giving merchants a unique platform to reach new audiences in an engaging and creative way like nowhere else.”
Neilson’s study states that 88% of TikTok users discover new content that they enjoy while using the app, and 50% discover new products through advertisements posted by a product or brand. To keep up with this, TikTok has taken several steps such as introducing new ad formats as well as achieving brand safety certification. Oknayan further said,
“As we continue to develop our platform to bring businesses of all sizes innovative and fun ways to connect with new customers, as well as get the best out of their campaigns, we are confident this partnership with Shopify is a big step in this direction and the start of a promising future in the e-commerce arena.”
Social commerce has been an emerging channel for merchants to reach out to newer audiences. Through this partnership, TikTok aims to make it easier for Shopify merchants to tap the creativity of the TikTok community and optimize their marketing campaigns. They can also benefit from the core functions of the TikTok For Business Ads Manager integrated into the Shopify dashboard. In simple terms, TikTok’s suite of ads allows to showcase creativity and tell stories legitimately, grow audiences and generate optimal results at a lower cost.
Satish Kanwar, Vice President of Product at Shopify expressing optimism said,
“TikTok is one of the world’s fastest-growing entertainment platforms with over 100 million highly engaged users in the US alone. The TikTok channel means Shopify merchants—even those without a strong TikTok following of their own yet—can connect with these new audiences using content that feels authentic and genuine to the TikTok experience.”
Some key points of the partnership include:
Seamless and Streamlines operation
Shopify Merchants can set up an account and payment options seamlessly as well as easily track conversions by installing TikTok Pixel.
One-Stop-Shop for all
Merchants can easily create and optimize campaigns, target audiences, and track performance all under one go
Testing New Commercial Features:
TikTok will also start testing new commercial features that will make it easy for users to discover Shopify merchants in the Middle East and shop their products within the app.
TikTok For Business Introduces New Ad Format With Spark Ads
TikTok for Business launched Spark Ads- a new native ad display format that allows brands and businesses not only to boost their own popular organic posts but also amplify relevant content shared by the community. The short video sharing app announced the launch of the ad format in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey region.
TikTok for Business is a global brand and is designed to provide marketers and brands technological innovations to be creative and engage the TikTok community. Brands looking to build a strong content strategy can scale up original creative videos seamlessly through Spark Ads. The format allows brands to measure the success of their campaigns including video view and conversion along with amplifying existing organic video. Furthermore, brands can keep the fun going with TikTok’s two popular features Stitch and Duet that allow users to reinterpret, reinvent, and build on creativity.
Spark ads are different from regular ads as the former allows advertisers to promote videos created by others with their permission. It allows brands to connect with the creators who help bring products and services to life without any middleman. Shant Oknayan, General Manager, Global Business Solutions, Middle East Africa Turkey, and Pakistan, TikTok said,
“With Spark Ads, brands can build long-lasting connections that are authentic and rooted in the community while also delivering sustainable and impactful business value. We’re excited to roll out this new offering to the region, providing businesses across the region with even more opportunities to drive deeper engagement and connection with their audience.”
Instagram’s Reels, Tik-Tok’s Clone, Is Now For 60 seconds Long
Instagram Reels doubled the previous time- limit of 30 seconds and added functionality for a caption sticker.
Now, you can record Reels up to one minute long. Instagram announced that the Reels time limit is doubled to 60 seconds for all users.
Reels. up to 60 secs. starting today. pic.twitter.com/pKWIqtoXU2
— Instagram (@instagram) July 27, 2021
Within a month of its launch, Instagram extended Reels from 15 to 30 seconds. Recently, Tik Tok expanded its time limit to 3-minute, and YouTube Shorts also has a 60 second time limit, so it was unsurprising for Instagram to follow the trend. However, it is wise for Instagram to expand Reels to 60-second as it gives creators more capacity to work with.
It is mainly useful for creators who repurpose the same posts that they are uploading on TikTok or other competitor’s apps to grow their following across multiple platforms. Cross-posting is beneficial to the creators but also to Instagram, as it gives more content for Reels.
ProTip: Instagram’s algorithm doesn’t promote cross-posting content with a TikTok watermark, as it will affect your reach.
Instagram also added functionality for a caption sticker on Reels. It converts audio to text making for people who want to enjoy the Reels without sound. However, this is available only in a handful of English-speaking countries but Instagram plans to expand to other countries and languages soon.
TikTok : A Digital Ecosystem For Content Creators To Earn Extra Income!
TikTok’s capacity to make songs go viral has music marketers and record companies enthralled. They frequently pay influencers to incorporate a tune in their videos in the hopes of it becoming popular. On an app that is still in the early stages of adding monetization tools, the practice provides an essential source of income for TikTokers.
Jesse Callahan, the founder of the upstart marketing firm Montford Agency, said –
“Music marketing on TikTok is huge. It’s a big way that labels have brought artists into the spotlight the last couple of years. It’s also a big way that creators have made a lot of money.”
According to Callahan, influencers he works with charge between $200 and $300 per million followers so that a creator having 5 million followers could potentially earn between $1,000 and $1,500 for song promotion.
He added that this depends on the level of engagement as there are many content creators on TikTok who have half a million followers but still manage to engage more audience than those with over 5 million followers.
Sarah Callahan, who uses the username “Sarati” to broadcast videos to her 10 million TikTok fans, told Insider that a song promotion costs between $1,750 and $2,500. She claims she receives a handful of promotion pitches per day from independent artists and record labels, with prices starting at $500 per post.
Nicole, Natalie, and Nika Taylor, TikTok triplets who sing in the Taylor Red music act, joined TikTok in March 2020 after live concerts were halted due to the coronavirus outbreak. Their TikTok account went viral, gaining 8.6 million followers in just over a year.
To begin making money, the band turned to song promotion, creating an account on the freelancer portal Fiverr to interact with musicians and marketers. On Fiverr, the group charges $750 for a single video, $1,400 for two videos, and $2,000 for three music videos.
Natalie says –
“We’ve done all kinds of song promotions for all kinds of artists. We’re a country band, but we’ve done promotions for rap, hip hop, pop, pretty much every genre out there.”
According to Devain Doolaramani, the founder of the talent management and marketing organization, The Fuel Injector, there are still prospects for creators with fewer than a million followers to earn hundreds of dollars.
He said that a creator with 200,000 to 300,000 followers who receives 20,000 to 30,000 likes on a video can make $200 for a song promotion.
Rates for micro-influencers with 50,000 to 150,000 followers are more varied but can range from $20 to $150, according to Austin Georgas, a senior account manager at the Gen-Z media business Flighthouse who specializes in music marketing. He added that he believes pricing to be a “grey area” for people working for the first time.
Griffin Haddrill of the marketing agency VRTCL, said –
“When you’re looking at the top 10, top 20, top 30 creators on the app, I
would say be prepared to spend anywhere from $8,000 to $50,000 for a post.”
TikTok Brand Lift Study And How It Amps Up TikTok Experience!
TikTok has recently announced that it is introducing TikTok Brand Lift Study (BLS), a first-party measurement solution for advertisers.
The company believes that brands play a vital part in the whole TikTok experience. To make sure that resources are fully utilized, TikTok BLS assists to liberate advertisers with actionable data to move, enhance, and segment resources into meaningful campaigns and efforts.
TikTok has devised this new TikTok BLS, as the company believes, that it has witnessed the collective power of community over and again – whether it is in form of top hits, creating viral trends, or an increase in demand for popular products.
TikTok BLS offers businesses a novel way to traditional measurement and optimization of brand resonance.
TikTok BLS, in typical TikTok fashion, is an immersive, in-feed polling experience with the music and motion graphics that TikTok users have come to expect and adore.
TikTok BLS allows brand partners to use strict experimentation to understand and quantify the effectiveness of their ads. Brands can have a greater understanding of awareness, attitudes, favorability, and intent.
TikTok also says that as they continue to offer excellent brand lift performance, companies can be confident in making data-driven campaign decisions while building brand affinity on the platform.
Furthermore, TikTok has also announced that Kantar will be their third-party verification measurement partner of the TikTok BLS. The company believes that to uphold its mission of maintaining transparency, it provides advertisers with the options to fully comprehend their ad campaign value.
Nicole Jones, Senior Vice President, Growth & Strategy, Media & Content at Kantar said-
“We know from Kantar’s Media Reactions study that TikTok is the platform on which consumers globally feel they have the best advertising experience, so it’s critical for advertisers and their agencies to understand what works on the platform,”
Jones also added that they are excited to be TikTok’s third-party verification partner to aid advertisers to gain value from their marketing efforts.
TikTok says that with TikTok Brand Lift Study, brands can gain insights on how to effectively reach and interact with the communities that matter the most to them.
TikTok To Move Into Social Commerce Game, Partners With Shopify
Highlights:
- TikTok is investing in a social eCommerce platform with an announcement of a global partnership with Shopify.
- The deal will help Shopify’s 1 million merchants to advertise their products to TikTok’s younger audience and drive sales.
- Shopify merchants will be able to sell products in the form of shoppable ads whereas TikTok users can click on an ad to buy the tagged products.
- All transactions will be executed via Shopify’s site.
TikTok announced a global partnership with the Canadian eCommerce platform Shopify to help brands and merchants advertise their products through shoppable videos. Through the new partnership, Shopify’s one million merchants will be able to create and connect their TikTok For Business account and turn their existing imagery into videos for ‘shoppable ads’. Purchases are executed on the Shopify platform and hence the transaction data and customer data remain with the retailer than TikTok.
Despite the White House executive order of the sale unknown, business operations for TikTok are as usual and continue to grow. This integration will help to create new avenues of income for TikTok creators apart from influencer partnerships. TikTok’s partnership with Shopify is a significant step by the video-sharing app to widen its nascent advertising ecosystem.
Run It Using Shopify Dashboard
As per TikTok, through the new TikTok channel, Shopify merchants can access core functions of the TikTok For Business Ads Manager without leaving the Shopify dashboard. Highlights include:
Image Credit: Shopify
- New, “1-click” pixel: Shopify merchants can install or connect their TikTok Pixel with a click of a button, making it quicker and easier to track conversions.
- A One-Stop-Shop for TikTok Campaigns: Merchants can create campaigns, target audiences, and track performance in one place.
- Creative Made Simple: The ad tools enable Shopify merchants to create native, shareable content into in-feed video ads that resonate with the community.
- Free Ad Credit: For enticement, eligible Shopify merchants can claim a $300 ad credit to jumpstart their first TikTok campaign.
Expansion Of Other Shopping Features
Blake Chandlee, Vice President, Global Business Solutions at TikTok said,
“As social commerce proliferates, retailers are recognizing that TikTok’s creative and highly engaged community sets it apart from other platforms. We’re constantly exploring new and innovative ways to connect brands with our users, and Shopify is the perfect partner to help us grow and expand our commerce capabilities globally.”
TikTok is planning to test new in-app features that will let users discover Shopify merchants’ products and shop them directly within the app. The new features could be similar to the product tags that TikTok has been testing with some brands.
The two companies will collaborate to test new commerce features in the coming months. However, no financial details are revealed about the tie-up by the companies.
Satish Kanwar, VP of Product at Shopify said,
“We’re thrilled to be the first partner to welcome TikTok to the world of commerce, particularly right now, as our merchants prepare for a busy online holiday shopping season.”
Will Walmart Be Able To Ink The Deal With TikTok?
Walmart has been interested in investing in TikTok to enhance its advertising strategy and enhance merchant traffic. However, the talks remain shrouded amidst political uncertainty. Even though the possible ban on TikTok is yet to go into effect, the collaboration between TikTok and Shopify might sign that it is not a major threat. For Shopify, the TikTok deal is more lucrative for the U.S markets.
TikTok has been steadily ramping its tools for merchants and brands in recent months. It introduced a self-serve advertising platform to help small businesses broader reach. It also debuted a marketing program with approved providers of advertising service to support brands in creating, executing, measuring, and boosting their ad campaigns. Meanwhile, in August it tested its first shoppable live stream with Ntwrk. TikTok has been trying to grow its revenue opportunities and advertiser base.
If it plays the cards the right way, TikTok can emerge as a powerful e-commerce engine. This is one of the main reasons for Walmart’s keen interest in buying a stake in the video-sharing app. As per Tik Tok, half of the users indicated that they discover new products through advertisements posted by a product or brand in the app. Such a high level of engagement is beneficial for merchants who are looking to reach the millennial generation whose spending power is high.
TikTok reports that the new channel for Shopify is now available in the US. It will become available in Europe and Southeast Asia in early 2021.
TikTok Rival Triller Allegedly Reporting Inflated Monthly User Numbers
Tik Tok rival Triller has been allegedly inflating its monthly user numbers. As reported by Business Insider, some former employees expressed disbelief over the user numbers published by the company.
Triller executives have not been reticent about their intentions to overtake TikTok. In fact with the recent press releases on user numbers, the short video app appears to be gleeful about it. Triller CEO Mike Lu said at TechCrunch Disrupt on September 15, 2020,
“We’re definitely on a rocket ship. It’s a true exponential curve in terms of our usage, in terms of our growth, and we don’t see that slowing down anytime soon.”
TikTok is bogged down in a legal battle with the President of the United States and Triller taking advantage of the situation, deployed the strategy of smash-mouth marketing. Surprisingly, Triller’s gambit appears to have thrived.
Last month, Teller announced in a press release that it had “over 100 million monthly active users” and “over 250 million downloads.” However, six former employees told Business Insider that the numbers were disputable based on their past experiences.
Triller Controversial User Data
Triller, the Los Angeles-based short video app backed by media mogul Ryan Kavanaugh’s Proxima Media attracted many influencers and signed the TikTok star Charli D’Amelio and her family, last month. Back in December 2019, it said to have grown 500% organically year over year to 13 million monthly active users and 60 million total downloads. Triller CEO Mike Lu claimed that Triller became No.1 across 80 different countries at some point. In mid-August, President Donald Trump also launched his official Triller account to promote his political campaign.
On 15th September, it announced to hit 100 million monthly users and over 250 million downloads. A week later while announcing a partnership with the body-grooming company Manscaped, the company claimed to have more than 140 million users.
The pace and size of Triller’s user base have been the talking point by the company. Though Triller often positions itself as a different app than TikTok but is steadily working on the same set of influencers to get onboard that made TikTok popular. CEO Mike Lu describes that Triller “has always been around music, around content, and around creative discovery.” Meanwhile, Triller is in the process to raise another round of funding at a lofty valuation.
What Are They Saying
As reported by Business Insider,
“Four of the six former Triller employees Business Insider spoke with confirmed that they had access to the Localytics dashboard and remembered Triller’s MAU count ranging between 1 million to 2.5 million at the time. The other two said they remembered the MAU count being about that 1-2.5 million range at the time, but did not name Localytics in particular.”
None of the former employees understood the calculation behind 13 million active users in 2019. However, Lu told Business Insider,
“As for our users, we can validate each and every one of our 239M plus of them and have two separate third party analytics companies preparing independent analyses based on transparent data access.”
Triller Challenges Third-Party Apps Analytics Companies
Tech Crunch first reported that the app store intelligence firm Apptopia estimated Triller app to be downloaded 52 million times since launch worldwide against the claims of 250 million times. It claims that the numbers published are inflated. However, Triller Threatened to sue the analytic firm over false information. But soon, Apptopia retracted its estimate after getting in touch with each other through a mutual investor. Now, the two companies plan to co-publish report on Triller’s data based on Apptopia’s final findings.
On the other hand, Sensor Tower estimates also differ from the company’s claims. Sensor Tower data indicates Triller had reached 45.6 million total global installs since its launch. The Sensor tower explains that the discrepancies could have to do with how Triller calculates its installs. Some companies consider different forms of installs like re-installs, updates, and direct installs of Android APKs whereas the third party doesn’t.
New Partnership Sealed
Amidst the dispute, Triller partnered with the digital advertising platform Consumable which will give the short video app access to its 250 million users. This partnership will help Triller further monetize its platform by inserting programmatic advertising between Triller’s short-form video content units.
Mark Levin, CEO of Consumable said,
“This is an exciting partnership given our collective focus on delivering innovative, bite-sized content. It combines Triller’s short-form entertainment with Consumable’s short-form digital advertising to deliver the first social video discovery platform on media publisher websites.”
Triller CEO Mike Lu commented that this partnership will create scalable monetization opportunities and a sustainable profitable business model.
Triller Hype Train
As reported by Adage, Triller recently started its first advertising service named as CrossHype. It will split the revenue with the influencers and alleges to guarantee the numbers of impressions. Triller videos can be shared with Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram. If influencers partners with brands through Triller, a portion of the reach will come from the audience across the platform. This can be one of the reasons to create Crosshype to assure brands about the potential size of the audience. However, industry players are skeptical about Triller’s Crosshype presentation. They believe that guaranteeing impressions with influencers can create pressure on them and incentivize bad habits like buying followers, inflating likes, and more.
However, the world of social media is full of surprises. If Triller’s play for TikTok talent works and viewers follow creators, then there is no stopping. It will also be important for Triller to soon prove the claimed statistics true to reclaim its credibility. Particularly, when the app is under the public eye and can capitalize on the hype surrounding TikTok.
About Triller:
For the uninitiated, Triller an AI-powered music video app that allows users to create high-quality videos in a matter of seconds. Users can use sounds from the Riller library, Spotify, and Apple Music. The short video app has entered 35 deals with Fortune 500 and established brands. Triller also brought on music artists like Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, Marshmello, Lil Wayne, and Kendrick Lamar as investors and strategic partners last year. For more details, visit www.triller.co
Trump Praises Tik Tok Deal As ‘Fantastic’ With Oracle and Walmart
Key Points
- In the eleventh hour, Tik Tok averted a shutdown in the U.S after President said he has given his blessing to a deal with Oracle and Walmart.
- The deal announced by the companies would create a new company Tik Tok Global that will be headquartered in the U.S.
- Silicon Valley giant Oracle will become a minority investor with a 12.5% stake in Tik Tok Global and a cloud partner.
- Tentatively, Walmart will own a 7.5 % stake in Tik Tok Global as a commercial partner and CEO Doug McMillonwould would serve as one of the five board members.
- Tik Tok’s Chinese parent company Byte Dance will own the remaining 80% of Tik Tok Global.
Tik Tok successfully averted the app store ban in the eleventh hour, with President Trump giving preliminary approval to the landmark deal with Oracle and Walmart. Meanwhile, the U.S judge issued a ruling early Sunday morning to block the WeChat ban.
Background:
In August, Trump had issued an executive order to face a ban if Tik Tok U.S operations were not sold to an American company by September 20, owing to its data privacy concerns related to Tik Tok’s ownership by a Chinese tech company.
- Tik Tok denied it and said that 100 million American users’ data is stored in the U.S and back up in Singapore.
- Shortly after the announcement, Byte Dance was in talks with Microsoft or Oracle to sell Tik Tok’s U.S operations.
- Meanwhile, the talks went kaput after the Chinese government implemented new rules on AI technology exports that prevented Tik Tok from transferring its recommendation algorithm and technology.
Of note: Presently, The U.S. Commerce Department has announced a delay by week to September, 27 to the executive order deadline.
What he’s saying: After all the twists and turns, Trump approved the deal ‘in concept’ and said,
“I think it’s going to be a fantastic deal. I have given the deal my blessing. If they get it done that’s great, if they don’t that’s okay too.”
He further added that the new entity to be formed will be exclusive for U.S operations.
“It will have nothing to do with any outside land, any outside country, it will have nothing to do with China. It’ll be totally secure. That’ll be part of the deal.”
- The President also noted that the new company will likely be headquartered in Texas and could bring at least 25,000 jobs across the country.
- One of the stipulations for approving the deal was a $5 billion commitment towards an education fund to teach kids about history, science, and other subjects.
- Trump also noted that “it’ll be totally controlled by Oracle and Walmart”.
Yes, but not completely true. Tik Tok Global will be a 100% subsidiary of the Chinese parent company Byte Dance. The company is planning to raise pre-IPO financing with new investors Oracle and Walmart taking 20% – 12.5% and 7.5% respectively after which Tik Tok Global will be a 80% holding subsidiary of Byte Dance.
However, Americans will hold a 4-1 majority on the TikTok Global board, whereas ByteDance shareholders — will own a majority of shares in the company that includes American, Chinese, and international investors. This shows Byte Dance will have some control over the product’s intellectual property. Therefore, it is debatable to say whether the Americans will have total control over the company from governance, management, and technology standpoint.
What did Tik Tok say:
“We are pleased that the proposal by TikTok, Oracle, and Walmart will resolve the security concerns of the US Administration and settle questions around TikTok’s future in the US.”
— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) September 19, 2020
What did Oracle say: Oracle CTO Larry Ellison said Tik Tok will run on the Oracle cloud. CEO Safra Catz said,
“Oracle will quickly deploy, rapidly scale, and operate TikTok systems in the Oracle Cloud. We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world.”
“This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders.”
What does this mean for Oracle:
- The cloud deal is a huge win for Oracle and shows its expertise in cloud computing which is majorly dominated by Amazon and Microsoft.
- Oracle can expect a nice ROI when Tik Tok Global has a public listing n a year.
- Oracle will be the ‘trusted technology’ partner who will use its cloud infrastructure to protect U.S data.
- Oracle Generation 2 will isolate running applications and responds to security threats autonomously.
What did Walmart say: The retail giant will be a commercial partner and outlined the following in a statement:
“This partnership will provide Walmart with an important way for us to expand our reach and serve omnichannel customers as well as grow our third-party marketplace, fulfillment, and advertising businesses.”
- Walmart said it will provide “eCommerce, fulfillment, payments and other omnichannel services to TikTok Global.”
- It would work toward a public listing of TikTok Global in the U.S. “within a year” to bring more ownership to American citizens.
- The deal can help Walmart gain a foothold in social commerce and access to users who are younger than average Walmart shoppers.
What happens next: As reported by Bloomberg, The two companies would pay a combined $12 billion for their stakes if they agree to an asking price of $60 billion. However, the companies are yet to negotiate and finalize the valuation as they have worked out only equity and measures for data security.
As the deal inches closer, there are certain impending concerns :
- The Chinese government is yet to approve the deal. If sources are to be believed the deal will get a nod from China as it adheres to the new tech export rules.
- Given that Tik Tok is not completely cut loose of Chinese ownership, it is unclear whether it will satisfy the requirements of the U.S national security concerns.
This Tik Tok saga had many twists and turns and according to the U.S treasury, the deal still needs to be finalized and approved by the federal national security committee. More drama can be expected in the coming weeks.
Bottom Line: On the face of it, Tik Tok is here to stay and time-being influencers can do the happy dance.
Read more: Tik Tok Widens Ad Options With New Marketing Tools, Rolls Out New Feature ‘Stitch’
TikTok Being Transparent: Revealed It’s Algorithm To The World
After losing business in several countries, TikTok finally decided to reveal its algorithm to the people. It is a huge step taken by the makers of the company, as TikTok is a world-famous application and numerous competitors wanted to know the development details of the application.
TikTok has millions of followers on its platform, and it will be interesting to know how TikTok manages such a broad user database on its incredibly popular platform.
Well, we all are familiar with the popularity of TikTok in the global market. The company evaluation is somewhere around $20-30 billion.
According to a TikTok spokesperson, the big decision was taken to end the speculation of TikTok being a Chinese government spy application which the government is using to gain data of the users of other countries.
In a statement, Michael Beckerman TikTok’s vice president in charge of U.S. public policy stated:
“We’re a 2-year-old company operating with the expectations of a 10-year-old company,”
“We didn’t have the opportunity to grow up in the golden years of the internet when tech companies could do no wrong. We grew up in the techlash age, where there’s a lot of skepticism of platforms, how they moderate content and how their algorithms work.”
TikTok has developed a virtual centre in Los Angeles. They are calling it the “transparency centre.” A team of reporters visited the centre, where the TikTok team demonstrated the data practices and functioning of the algorithm.
TikTok is struggling to survive the order of banishment in the USA market. As, USA President Donald Trump has given a deadline of September 15, to the owners of the Chinese application to either face the ban, or sell the company to an American buyer.
Recently, China has also imposed a ban, restricting the export of all Chinese software. It is a step taken to prevent the Chinese application TikTok from selling its algorithm to USA buyers.
Understanding The Algorithm
The application uses the technique of machine learning to determine the most preferred content by the users. Once the content is determined, the algorithm makes sure that it shows similar content to the user. It also groups the people having similar interests and provides them with the content accordingly.
The First Time User
When the user is new to the application and opens it for the first time, the algorithm shows him eight videos from different categories. These categories are usually related to:
- Popular Trends in the social media or on the application
- Music
- And other topics
Once the algorithm gets familiar with the user choices, it will continue serving them with similar content on the application platform.
Group the content and find similarity between the videos, the algorithm uses hashtags, captions and sounds. Another method used by the algorithm to present videos to the user is by the device the user is using, the language they have selected and the country they are residing in.
The algorithm is advanced in its behavior and video presentation to the user, and it makes sure that the user is not represented with the same video which can lead to boredom and lack of interest in the application.
However, the work of the algorithm is not limited; to not showing the repeated content to the user. It makes sure that the users are presented with varieties of videos on other trending topics.
The Filter Bubble
TikTok calls its video filtering technique “the Filter Bubble.” The developer team of TikTok community keep a check on which filters are preferred by the users and how long they last before the user changes its preferences for the videos.
After the reports are generated on the filter bubbles, the developer sends the reports to the global team. The team analyzes the reports received and accordingly releases the upcoming video. It helps them to better market the trends and also gain advertisers and hire influencers.
Detecting The Upcoming Problems
The technique helps the creator analyze the shortcomings of the application and see if there is a threat to security. It helps TikTok in maintaining their user policies by eliminating any unwanted content that might propagate on their platform or trend among their users.
Roland Cloutier, TikTok’s chief security officer, states that they have already planned to hire more than 100 experts on security and privacy in the USA.
The team is planning to build an investigation response centre in Washington D.C. The team will detect and regulate any malpractice incidence in real-time.
According to Beckerman, the step towards the transparency of the application will portray the company as a leader in the Silicon Valley.
“We want to take a leadership position and show more about how the app works,” he said. “For us, we’re new, and we want to do this because we don’t have anything to hide. The more we’re talking to and meeting with lawmakers, the more comfortable they are with the product. That’s the way it should be.”
TikTok Widens Ad Options With New Marketing Tools, Rolls Out New Feature ‘Stitch’
The fate of TikTok in the U.S is looming amid negotiations with potential buyers. The future is a question mark now as President Trump said he plans to shut down the Chinese-owned app if it is unable to sell its U.S operations before September 20 over security concerns. Meanwhile, business is as usual for the short video sharing app as it rolls out a new marketing partner program that will be housed under TikTok business. The company also announced the debut of a new editing feature called Stitch which allows users the ability to clip and integrate scenes from another user’s video into their own. It is also testing the new in-app eCommerce feature.
Launched officially in June, TikTok business is the company’s advertising platform and a hub for all marketing solutions for the app. The new marketing partner program has nearly 20 partner companies that can support brands and marketers in creating, executing, measuring, and boosting their ad campaigns. It will include companies across categories like campaign management (e.g. Sprinklr and Bidalgo), creative development (e.g. QuickFrame and Shuttlerock), branded effects (e.g. Bare Tree Media and Byte), and measurement(e,g, Kantar). The complete collaboration list is given below.
It is common for social media apps to add marketing partners, that’s doubling down the money through ad tech-based on its growing and engaging audience. This shows that TikTok has expansion plans to work with big brands, leverage its strong audience growth to build advertising opportunities, and sell products to them in an innovative way.
Melissa Yang, head of Ecosystem Partnerships, TikTok, noted in the blog post,
“With the launch of TikTok For Business, we’re building new opportunities for marketers to be creative storytellers and meaningfully engage with the TikTok community.”
“We’re thrilled to collaborate with some of the most strategic and trusted leaders in the advertising industry and continue giving marketers access to more tools to successfully create, measure and optimize ad campaigns on TikTok. We can’t wait to collaborate with partners to bring a creative and joyful experience to our brand partners and the broader TikTok community.”
Stitch The Seams Of Your Video
Stitch, is a way to reinterpret and add to another user’s content, building on their stories, tutorials, recipes, math lessons, and more. It allows users to include up to five seconds of a video clip from another user in their own TikTok post.
Stitch has been in testing form in April and now its rolled out to users globally to kickstart a new trend in videos. TikTok said like Duets, users can decide whether to stitch videos or not by changing the settings for all videos in the Privacy settings or toggle for each individual video whether to use the feature or not.
Every video made by Stitch will attribute to the original creator in the caption and link directly to the original clipped video. This move ensures that the credit is given to the original creator and not get lost in the mix which is quite unusual on social media.
eCommerce Feature: In-app Video Shopping for Shopify and Teespring storefronts.
TikTok recently introduced an in-app shopping button to some users that directly links to e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Teespring in their videos. TikTok is partnering with eCommerce platforms to let creators sell merchandise directly through its app.
This new development will help TikTok to compete with its social media siblings like YouTube and Instagram. The shopping button will appear at the bottom left of the video and will be visible only in-app and not on a mobile browser or desktop. Creators can monetize their influence through merchandising and direct-to-consumer sales and can secure their own deals for sponsored posts. As per Business Insider reports, Teespring’s CEO said,
Its partnership with TikTok has drawn new interest in its merchandise and e-commerce tools from TikTokers. The company registered 900 new TikTok accounts on its platform in the first 24 hours after the integration was made public — a 13% increase
Presently, the shopping link feature works only with Teespring and Shopify, and users are not allowed to add links to unsupported websites. To add an e-commerce button to a ToikTok video, select add link choose a product on the video publishing page, and to this TikTok will automatically add a #sponsred hashtag to each post. The feature is still under evaluation before a full rollout.
Final List Of Collaboration With the Marketing Partners, As Per TikTok
Campaign Management –Partners that help plan, create, optimize, and measure marketing campaigns.
- Bidalgo – Bidalgo drives growth and reduces user acquisition complexity for mobile marketers, leveraging AI to generate actionable insights and powerful automation capabilities for creative production and media buying.
- Bidshake – Empowers fast, efficient and reliable campaign management by enabling real-time, automated cross-channel actions based on aggregated data all from one platform.
- Sprinklr – The world’s leading Customer Experience Management (CXM) platform.
- WinClap – The marketing company that provides advanced AI analytics, expertise, and creative production to boost the performance of your campaigns
- MakeMeReach – Multi-channel ads management platform optimized for scale.
Creative Development – To build assets like videos that work on TikTok
- QuickFrame – More than a marketplace connecting bro content at scale.
- Shuttlerock – Transforms existing brand assets into stunning handcrafted video ads.
- VidMob – Leading creative analytics & post-production platform that uses data to understand your creaands to video creators. We help businesses grow by transforming the way they produce videtive, improve your ads and increase marketing performance.
- Vidsy – Helping brands achieve their business goals with effective digital ad creative.
- Cohley – Helps brands and agencies cost-effectively scale the creation of UGC videos for ads.
Branded Effects- Partners that provide Virtual and Augmented-Reality services to brands from ideation to production for TikTok Branded Effects.
- Bare Tree Media – A full-service creative agency enabling brands to reach, engage and entertain consumers through the creation and digital publishing of augmented reality (AR), emojis, messaging stickers and GIFs within popular messaging platforms.
- Byte – Global specialists in branded AR, Byte is a martech agency that combines technology and creativity to help solve brands’ challenges.
- Happy Finish – Global creative production collective studio, creating realities. We specialize in cross-platform services including Retouch, CGI, Animation, VFX, VR, AR & Mixed Reality and Creative AI, and craft experiences for some of the biggest brands and agencies in the world.
- IgniteXR – Ignite XR is an end-to-end creative solutions group for augmented reality, creating integrated AR campaigns for brands and translating ideas into engaging immersive creative experiences.
- Poplar Studio – A global creative platform that makes the creation of 3D and AR campaigns easier, faster, affordable and fun — including face filters, world effects, mini-games, portals and image trackers.
- Subvrsive – Subvrsive is an immersive innovation studio focused on creating content, software and experiences that transform businesses on a global scale.
- Tommy – A modern communications agency that uses technology, strategy and award-winning design to help brands earn the attention of their audiences.
- Unit9 – A production studio focusing on AR/VR, Digital, Experiential, Gaming, Innovation and Film projects.
Measurement – To target and analyze campaigns
- Kantar – The world’s leading data, insights and consulting company.