The year TikTok became essential (2025)

Hello from The Goods’ twice-weekly newsletter! On Tuesdays, internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings uses this space to update you all on what’s been going on in the world of TikTok. Is there something you want to see more of? Less of? Different of? Email rebecca.jennings@vox.com, and subscribe to The Goods’ newsletter here.

It’s December, which is always a time to reflect on the past 12 months, although the major difference this year is that nine of them were collectively terrible.

Well, terrible with one exception: Over the past few weeks, writers have begun publishing their odes to 2020, the year of TikTok. By April, it had already surpassed 2 billion downloads; it now has an estimated 850 million monthly active users. BuzzFeed’s Scaachi Koul wrote that TikTok was “2020’s only silver lining”; Bookforum’s Charlotte Shane described it as “a precious source of solace during an unendingly precarious time.” Vulture’s Zoe Haylock argued that it was “the best medium for our absurdist present.”

For what it’s worth, I agree. Or, at least I did, until I saw TikTok’s top 100 trends of 2020, which ranks the most popular people, memes, and subcultures on the platform (whether or not these were heavily curated is unclear — TikTok did not provide data to back up its claims regarding what makes a “top” trend).

What you’ll find there is both heartening and not. In the music section, Black artists make up nine of the 10 hits, although one of them was Jason Derulo’s rather shameless remake of an already-viral reggaeton beat, which he released without permission from the little-known New Zealand artist Jawsh 685. Emerging creators like vegan cooking influencer Tabitha Brown and Minnesota-based Doctor Leslie were highlighted in the list, but the vast majority of creators named had mostly gone viral for being traditionally good-looking or otherwise interesting to look at. The most popular video of the year, for instance, was of a woman named Bella Poarch with an exceptionally childlike face making cosplay expressions to a grime song. It has been viewed more than half a billion times.

What does Bella Poarch’s inexplicable rise say about the future of entertainment? I think this recent Kyle Chayka piece that basically tries to answer the question “How do you describe TikTok?” makes a lot of really salient points. He’s written extensively on algorithms and their effects on the culture, and on TikTok, the algorithm is the entirety of the experience. On the For You page, users don’t curate their feeds like they would on Twitter or Instagram; the decision of what to watch is made for them, and none of us are allowed to know why the videos we see are the ones served to us.

Chayka compares TikTok to two forms of legacy media: magazines and television, with the user acting as both editor and consumer. “‘The mix’ is famously how Tina Brown described the combination of different kinds of stories in Vanity Fair when she was the magazine’s very successful editor-in-chief in the ’80s,” he writes. “Brown’s mix was hard-hitting news, fluffy celebrity profiles, glamorous fashion shoots, and smart critical commentary, all combined into one magazine. TikTok automates the mix of all these topics, going farther than any other platform to mimic the human editor.” At the same time, he says, it’s also “an eternal channel flip, and the flip is the point: there is no settled point of interest to land on. Nothing is meant to sustain your attention.”

The result, he argues, is what essentially amounts to “soft censorship,” or a feed that becomes as “glossy, appealing, and homogenous as possible rather than the truest reflection of either reality or a user’s desires.” How did a perfectly average competitive dancer become the No. 1 internet celebrity in the world? Why did half a billion people watch Poarch’s face bob up and down? Because these two women are the logical endpoint of the world’s most powerful entertainment algorithm: young people centering their conventional attractiveness in easily repeatable formats.

With every new TikTok star who dances or smirks their way to a million followers come just as many more people asking why they deserve to be famous in the first place. The cycle of overnight fame and equally swift backlash is going to keep happening, because as more people download and use TikTok, the algorithm gets better at choosing the content we all must pay attention to.

Those are problems we can save for next year, though. As Koul writes in BuzzFeed, “Look, I know TikTok is probably evil, as most tech companies turn out to be, but that’s later me’s problem. Current me just wants to be soothed.” Here’s to a year of avoiding the news and getting lost in the void.

TikTok in the news

  • The TikTok sale was supposed to be done by now. It appears no one cares.
  • Another TikTok talent management company, IQ Advantage, has been accused of using scammy practices to retain clients, including contracts that required them to give the company a deposit of $299 before signing (an extremely unusual deal), Business Insider reports. Thankfully, the company appears to have shut down in November.
  • A smart and sort of scary read on whether TikTok is equipped to handle the responsibilities of a global platform, by Rest of World’s Louise Matsakis.
  • Versailles — like, the palace — is on TikTok now. It’s only the latest historic institution to turn to the platform in an effort to reach its young users.
  • A cool look at how TikTok blows up rap verses before they’re even songs.
  • Miley Cyrus is doing the most on TikTok (including asking out a fan, it’s very cute!).
  • Do not watch the videos from this crime scene clean-up crew’s TikTok account if you are squeamish about blood.
  • This Starbucks taste test and its follow-up videos are a wild ride; friendly reminder that before you leave angry reviews on scented candles, make sure you don’t have Covid-19!

One Last Thing

Let’s face it, we’re all just jealous of the “chamomile tea bitches.”

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  • Technology
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The year TikTok became essential (2025)

FAQs

What year did TikTok become popular? ›

TikTok, which officially landed in the United States in 2018, was the most downloaded app in the country, and the world, in 2020, 2021 and 2022. It wasn't that the elements of it were so new — compelling videos from randos had long been a staple of American pop culture — but TikTok put the pieces together in a new way.

Why is TikTok essential? ›

TikTok is not just a platform for younger audiences. In fact, it actually has a huge following among older people, all over the world. In addition to being a great way to engage with teens and young adults, TikTok can also be used to reach out to parents, grandparents, and other family members who use social media.

How did TikTok become so successful? ›

TikTok's massive success comes from a combination of...

Perhaps TikTok's main selling point is its well curated "For You Page" (fyp in TikTok lingo) of short-form videos. Social media users are no stranger to this format. Vine, for one, arguably popularized these types of posts.

Is TikTok good or bad for society? ›

TikTok is both a vital platform for community building and plagued by dangerous misinformation. TikTok is both uniquely good at providing a means for non-influencers to reach a huge audience and a platform that has failed, again and again, to fairly and adequately moderate the content posted there.

When was Tiktoks peak year? ›

TikTok was the most downloaded app for the past three years and set a record for number of downloads in quarter in Q1 2020.

Is TikTok banned in China? ›

China. China itself does not permit the international version of TikTok to be used on the mainland. Instead, users must download Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok which is subject to censorship from the Chinese Communist Party.

Is TikTok an essential app? ›

It's not a new trend, but the fact that it is still troubling users in 2022 is disheartening. Reuben Binns, an associate professor at the University of Oxford, tweeted the photo of a Samsung phone's setup screen, which labels TikTok as an essential app.

Who owns TikTok now? ›

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a private global company founded by Chinese entrepreneurs. According to TikTok, about 60% of the parent company is owned by global institutional investors, 20% by the company's founders and 20% by employees. The app's CEO is Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean businessman.

Why is TikTok getting banned? ›

The Justice Department has defended the law President Biden signed in April on national security grounds. They have stated that the app could be weaponized by China to disseminate propaganda to 170 million Americans and that TikTok could be used to help the Chinese government collect personal information of its users.

What is the purpose of TikTok? ›

What is TikTok? TikTok is a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short videos. The app is used by young people as an outlet to express themselves through singing, dancing, comedy, and lip-syncing, and allows users to create videos and share them across a community.

Why is TikTok so addictive? ›

Elements of TikTok, such as escapism, connection, and external validation, are likely to trigger the neural reward system. In essence, the surge of dopamine causes a person to feel good, lending itself to addiction risk. TikTok content is comprised of short videos that may serve to shorten a person's attention span.

Can TikTok track you? ›

By default, TikTok knows your IP address, but if you grant permission it can also track your location using your device's GPS. Purchase information. TikTok may log your payment card numbers, billing and shipping addresses, where required for the purpose of payment.

What is the dark truth about TikTok? ›

1) Predators and Cyberbullying

First, one of the biggest concerns about TikTok is that it has become a popular platform for predators to target young children. TikTok has little control over who can create an account. That means that anyone with malicious intentions can create a profile and prey on kids.

What was TikTok called before? ›

Merger into TikTok

On August 2, 2018, musical.ly and TikTok merged, with existing accounts and data consolidated into one app, keeping the title TikTok. This ended musical.ly and made TikTok a worldwide app, excluding China, since China's separate version of TikTok is called Douyin.

Why is TikTok so popular with Gen Z? ›

For Gen Z more so than Millennials, TikTok enhances socializing by creating opportunities for group activities like dance challenges and trends. It is almost like an extension of themselves, a virtual personality, a platform for self-expression, and a creative outlet.

Is TikTok losing popularity? ›

TikTok's growth stalled in the final quarter of 2023 and even went into reverse in the US. Many young users have signed on to the short-form video app since its launch in 2016. Those core users are entering their 20s now and getting busy with other obligations.

Which country banned TikTok first? ›

China's neighbor, India, was among the first countries to have placed restrictions on TikTok and other Chinese apps. India banned some 60 Chinese apps, including TikTok, during a military confrontation along the Himalayan border that it shares with China.

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