MEXICO CITY (apro).-TikTok, the social media platform that allows users to share short videos in vertical format, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, was introduced in September 2016 under the name Douyin in the Chinese market.
Starting August 2, 2028, the TikTok app was available worldwide. Shortly before that, ByteDance decided to integrate TikTok and Musical.ly, also owned by ByteDance, into a single network.
The social network Musical.ly allowed for the creation of videos and live broadcasts. It was largely instrumental in the formidable expansion of TikTok. Today, TikTok, the Chinese giant Big Tech, can be downloaded in more than 150 countries.
According to the Digital 2022. July Global Statshot Report, prepared by We Are Social and Hootsuite, the number of users of social media platforms and networks (July 2022) was estimated at 4,700,000,000. TikTok was ranked sixth, with 1,023,000,000 users.
Among the social media platforms with the largest number of users, Facebook remains the leader (2,936,000,000). The flagship network of the "Zuckerberg empire" was incorporated into the web on February 4, 2004, under the name The Facebook.
In 2012, Facebook reached 1 billion users. It took Facebook eight years to reach 1 billion users. It took TikTok only six years.
TikTok's cultural impact on contemporary societies is undeniable, particularly among "Generation Z," a demographic cohort that includes those born between the mid-1990s and 2010.
TikTok's leadership also extends to the "Alpha" generation, which includes those born after 2011.
According to the online report Think With Google, 461% of the world's population is part of Generation Z, the largest and most diverse in history. The aforementioned source also states that Generation Z is 100% digital and, when it comes to digital storytelling, prefers short formats.
Think With Google analysts believe that Generation Z will see an increase in income over the next five years, and that it will remain the largest consumer segment until at least 2030.
Among social media platforms and networks—the most dynamic sector in the internet economy—TikTok's penetration has transcended the boundaries of entertainment, affirming its popularity in the information universe.
For this reason, some experts warn that TikTok could pose a serious threat to Google.
According to Cloudfare's internet traffic rankings, Chinese Big Tech surpassed Google in popularity in 2021, relegating the search engine to second place.
In recent years, TikTok has effectively emerged as one of the most widely used platforms for information searches, particularly among Generation Z and Alpha.
In the DPL News 2023 Predictions report: Digital Policies and ICT Can Contribute to the Economic Environment, analysts from the firm DPL affirm that, beyond leisure and entertainment, TikTok will have ample growth opportunities in 2023, as a greater number of news sites, schools, and accounts dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge will adopt TikTok to respond to the expectations of their priority audiences.
Chinese Big Tech has also become a major competitor to Facebook. In an interview with analyst Ben Thompson published in the Stratechery newsletter, cited in Fortune, Mark Zuckerberg admitted to failing to recognize the new ways people interact on digital platforms in a timely manner.
TikTok definitely surprised Mark Zuckerberg. Since TikTok's arrival, Facebook's user growth has slowed. Generations Z and Alpha have distanced themselves from Facebook. They perceive it as a monotonous, outdated platform, unrelated to their interests and interaction dynamics.
Zuckerberg understood that his platforms are losing the battle for the attention of Generations Z and Alpha to TikTok.
Zuckerberg decided to follow in TikTok's footsteps and introduced Reels to Instagram in 2020, and to Facebook in 2021. Reels allows users to create short videos. It includes recording and editing features, as well as effects, stickers, audio, music, and more. He also envisioned the possibility of introducing a version of Instagram for children: Instagram Kids.
However, the leak of thousands of internal Facebook documents, which were revealed by Frances Haugen, the "deep throat at Facebook," forced Zuckerberg to halt the introduction of Instagram Kids.
Haugen revealed that research conducted by Instagram staff had alerted Zuckerberg to the social media platform's negative effects on adolescents, highlighting anorexia, bulimia, low self-esteem, and suicide. Haugen called Instagram a "toxic" social media platform for teenagers.
At Facebook, some researchers suggested Zuckerberg modify Instagram's algorithms. Zuckerberg refused and intended to move forward with the Instagram Kids initiative. In the internal reports leaked by Haugen, Zuckerberg called children "a gold mine to be exploited."
On September 27, 2021, Instagram announced the “temporary suspension of Instagram Kids.”
To clean up the tarnished image of Mark Zuckerberg and his digital platforms, on October 28, 2021, at Connect 2022, Zuckerberg announced the company's name change. It went from Facebook to META Platforms.
Zuckerberg also took advantage of the spotlight to unveil Meta, his metaverse. On this occasion, the CEO of META Platforms anticipated the end of the social media era and hinted at the transition to a new era: the Age of the Metaverse, of course, his metaverse.
However, the transition to the metaverse era won't be as rapid as Zuckerberg would like. Furthermore, it will cost him much more money than he had anticipated.
According to an article published on October 26, 2002, in El País, META Platforms had lost a quarter of its stock market value, falling by 24,56%. The estimated loss was $89 billion.
META Platforms had lost $650 billion in stock market value, with a cumulative decline of 711% in 3Q.
According to a note published by Forbes Colombia in September 2022, half of Zuckerberg's fortune has vanished.
In September 2021, a month before Facebook's name change was finalized, Zuckerberg was considered one of the richest men in the world, surpassed only by Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Bill Gates.
Shortly before the end of 2022, he was ranked 20th on Bloomberg's billionaires list.
The outlook for META Platforms looks bleak in 2023. The strong dollar is backfiring, Apple has imposed a ban on ad tracking, and Gen Z and Gen Alpha prefer TikTok to the uncertainty inherent in Zuckerberg's metaverse, which, by the way, isn't the only metaverse in development.
For all the above reasons, Mark Zuckerberg decided to negotiate a greater stake for Microsoft in the development of META Platforms.
Zuckerberg is playing with fire. This year will be the year of the year.
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