Ashi Kamra ‘22
Imagine your finger scrolling on and on through the hundreds of videos illuminating your “For You” page. Small sound bites of the latest songs quickly cut each other off as your eyes stare intently at the screen. You scroll once more and stop. Leaning in closer to your phone, you see a quick, 30-second video of an East Asian woman with an impeccable jawline using a beautiful green tool called a “Gua Sha.” You look closer to see the video in question has 19 thousand likes. Even more intrigued, you take a look at the profile. Mount Lai, reads the name. 182.8K followers. “Skincare rituals rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine,” reads the bio. You have just come across a small business.
Everyone knows of TikTok, the most recent social media platform that has exploded onto the public scene. But, not all of TikTok has to do with dance trends, memes or pop songs. There is a surprisingly large presence of small businesses on TikTok. Ranging from candles to clothing to jewelry to studying tips, there are accounts for every kind of business. And they often are not silly ventures done just “for the fun of it”. Many of these accounts have tens or hundreds of thousands of followers. Individual videos can get millions of views, racking in a lot of money for the business to grow. But, how? In the sea of accounts created on TikTok, specifically 1.1 billion active users worldwide (TikTok Statistics, 2021), how can an individual, who depends on their business to support their livelihood no less, become so successful? Why has TikTok become the platform to use?
Unlike what most adults believe, TikTok is not like Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Firstly, compared to the other mainstream social media platforms, TikTok has become a staple of American culture in a fraction of the time as Instagram or Facebook. Only four years since its release and its founder, Zhang Yiming, is already the 10th most wealthy person in China (TikTok: The Story of a Social Media Giant, 2020). The business itself has a net worth of 75 billion dollars, while Instagram is worth 100 million--with a 6-year head start.
From a pure design standpoint, there are clear differences between TikTok and the other major media apps. It is made solely for “making and sharing apps,” (How TikTok Is Rewriting the World, 2019). TikTok’s only form of entertainment are short 30, 60, or 90-second videos. You navigate through the app simply by swiping up or down. There are also other features like “duets” or “sounds” that TikTokers use to diversify their content. While Twitter and Facebook and Instagram were mainly about following people and having followers, TikTok’s content and user-created entertainment are what really make it shine.
But, are these unique features what really make small businesses thrive? Well, yes and no. On a general level, the main reason why businesses can succeed is because of their audience. Anyone can sell anything as long as they have the right kind of a following. To do so, many businesses and companies spend billions of dollars attempting to reach their target audience. But, the great thing about TikTok is that, for one, it’s free! Anyone can create an account and post videos, meaning that you can use the attention-grabbing duets, sounds, and filters to your heart’s content. Secondly, and most importantly, is the algorithm.
The ominous TikTok algorithm is what defines the app. Like the other major social media platforms, TikTok uses a machine-learning algorithm to recommend videos to its users based on what they have seen, and liked, in the past. In the universe of videos on the app, the TikTok algorithm has created small galaxies of related videos that different people enjoy watching. This results in areas of the app known as “straight” TikTok, “alt” tiktok, food TikTok, anime TikTok, and so much more. This allows small businesses to very precisely target their preferred audience and ensure that their message or products are being heard by the people they want to hear it.
Over 60% (and rising) of TikTok accounts are created by Gen Zers, while approximately 30% are created by millennials (TikTok to the Moon, 2021). Meaning that, just by being on TikTok, small businesses can advertise to people who are more open, interested, and inclined to listen to you. Taken together, TikTok’s user demographic, core machine algorithm, and attention-grabbing video-editing features all make it an incredibly useful platform to successfully begin a small business.
So, what does this phenomenon entail for TikTok’s future? It seems as though with an influx of accounts used for a wide range of purposes, TikTok will only become more and more popular. As Marcia Turner, a writer for Forbes Business, puts it, “When it first emerged, Instagram was also used primarily by teens and young adults. Now, all age groups use it, as well as 25 million businesses. The same can happen with TikTok” (Using TikTok To Build Your Business, 2020). And with this popularity comes its inevitable downfall. Perhaps a new, more attractive social media platform will grab national attention in the years to come, and TikTok will continue the cycle that most media apps find themselves in. They're hot for a minute, and then the next, not so much. But this rise of small businesses on TikTok could have larger implications beyond popular culture and trends. On average, small businesses have trouble competing with larger, richer, and more reliable companies. But, with a method of advertising as successful and much less expensive than what major corporations use, we may just see a rise of “mom and pop” stores soon. And lastly, TikTok could help usher in a new era of advertising as more and more companies rely more on handmade, informal, yet engaging videos rather than mass-produced, expensive ads. I guess we’ll leave it up to the algorithm, or the next Doja Cat song.
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