How short video app TikTok became the first Chinese-made app to take the world by storm

TikTok, the popular short video app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, recently surpassed 1 billion installs globally on the iOS App Store and Google Play, becoming a hit in the US, Europe, India, and Southeast Asia.

The app, in which people dance, jump and lip sync to pop songs and music in 15-second shareable videos, was also the fourth-most downloaded non-game app last year and the No. 1 non-game app in the US in January, according to research firm SensorTower.

This makes it the first Chinese-made app to take the world by storm – putting it up there with the likes of US names such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube.

YouTube’s most-followed star, PewDiePie, talks about TikTok on a daily basis in his videos.

TikTok’s overseas success – tapping the universal desire to sing and dance – stands out in China because even Tencent’s dominant messaging and social media platform WeChat has remained essentially a Chinese phenomenon only.

WeChat, a transactional super app in China with over a billion daily active users, allows users to chat, read, play games and order food online. It tried to expand outside its home market in 2012 – before TikTok {also known as Douyin in China] was born – but has been unable to replicate its domestic success.