“Tick-tock”, “tick-tock”, the year 2019 is winding down. Even though we aren’t keeping track of the seconds left in the year, we’ve got #DettyDecember holding us down.
The feeling is in the air. From end-of-year activities and major concerts, to “lit” decorations and heavy traffic volumes in the city; heralding the season and close of the year or the beginning of the new year.
Let’s take a quick poll: Raise your hand, if you still do not know what TikTok is as at December 2019?
But you see the videos everywhere, right? Popping up as ads on YouTube, in the middle of app downloads or as suggestions for download, and on your timeline on many social networking sites. Reminiscent of a campaign strategy deployed by a southwestern governorship candidate, during the buildup to the 2019 Nigerian general elections. More so, the videos appear to range between anything and everything. Giving a vague idea of what the app is about.
There’s also room for ambiguity that could arise on the app store, judging by the association of its name and icon. (1) A musical note icon which can largely be mistaken for a music streaming site and; (2) the onomatopoeia “tick-tock” to mean: Time is running out, which can be attributed to a productivity app. Including its slogan: “Make every second count” (Make Your Day Count).
So, What kind of site is it? How does it work? What kind of videos go up? Is it new? Are Nigerians big on the app…. What is TikTok?
TikTok is a social media video app that allows users create and share short videos of themselves; most popularly, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos. Described as karaoke for the digital age (*contemplates in smule*), videos are enhanced by features such as background music; speed adjustments and editing; a time frame of 3 to 15 seconds and looping videos of 3 to 60 seconds. This is substantially what differentiates it from other social messaging and microblogging sites and has propelled it to become a leading destination for short mobile videos. On 2, August 2018, TikTok merged with musical.ly to create a larger video community, with existing accounts and data consolidated into one app, keeping the title TikTok. As of 2018, it surpassed Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to become the world’s most downloaded iOs app for that period.
Reaction and challenges
Two of the most popular features on the TikTok app are “react” and “duet”. The “react” feature allows users to film their reaction to a specific video, over which it is placed in a small window that is movable around the screen, while its “duet” feature allows users to add their own video to an existing video with the original content’s audio. These features have led to many trends and challenges such as the #bottlecapchallenge.
Although, Nigeria isn’t ranked as one of the countries with a large TikTok Database, there’s a growing popularity of the app and an interesting use of it. Factoring in the extra, we bring to everything.
According to tiktok.nigeria, these are the Most Popular Challenges of 2019:
- naijaoriginal
- africanmom
- iloveit
- idontwannadance
- markangeltiktokchallenge
To get a feel of these challenges, here is a compilation of links to check out on: most popular challenges and funny reaction videos, from Nigeria you’ll find on the internet. Including duets with your faves.