TikTok Boom - The Inside Story of the World's Favourite App

TikTok has taken over the world in just a few short years. What does its success mean for the future of technology? Journalist and author Chris Stokel-Walker tells the inside story of the Chinese app, with unprecedented access to key company figures.

'It is rare for a business analysis to read like a thriller - this one does.' - Azeem Azhar, Exponential View

'Vital to understanding how [TikTok] works and the impact it's having.' - Damian Collins, UK politician

'TikTok Boom is a must-read for students, scholars, and policymakers.' - David Craig, Professor, USC Annenberg
In just a few years, TikTok has stormed ahead of its rivals to become the world's biggest app. Where did it come from and how did it overtake its rivals?

Journalist Chris Stokel-Walker delves deep into the origins of China's viral video app. He yields new insights into its culture, addictive algorithm and influencer ecosystem.

And he reveals the influence of its owners ByteDance on hundreds of millions of users worldwide through the policing of little-known guidelines, including those on physical appearances.

TikTok is the emerging battleground for a geopolitical tussle between East and West for control of social me dia. It has already been banned in India.

TikTok Boom is a rollercoaster business story bristling with ambition and drama.

Find out where TikTok came from, where it's going, and what it can do for you.

Reviews
'A careful, detailed teardown of the people, culture and technology behind the world's most dynamic social network. It is rare for a business analysis to read like a thriller - this one does.' - Azeem Azhar

'Stokel-Walker... knows the product, the people, and the entire ecosystem inside and out, and it is this familiarity that makes his telling so compelling because he knows how to make you feel like you, too, are an insider in this strange new world.' - Rui Ma, Tech Buzz China

'Blending journalistic narrative with state-of-the-art academic research, no other author comes close to weaving this epic tale of the rise of China's first global platform threatening Silicon's Valley hegemony... A must-read for students, scholars, and policymakers.' - David Craig, USC Annenberg

Extract

Ask most people what ByteDance is and they'll likely meet you with a blank stare. Yet it is the owner of TikTok and a host of other world-leading apps. Founded in March 2012, it's worth about $180 billion. Despite the fact its apps are used by two billion people worldwide, earning it $34 billion in revenue in 2020, ByteDance deliberately keeps a low profile among the general public in the West. It wants its products to take centre stage.

It's a strategy devised by its low-key founder, Yiming Zhang. Whereas his fellow Chinese rival, Musical.ly's Alex Zhu, is creative and flighty, Zhang is measured and focused. Compared to his more brash counterparts in China, such as Jack Ma, the former boss of Alibaba Group, who's known for his exuberance and outgoing personality, he is even a little dull. Considered. He practises 'delayed gratification.' He's rational - though his choice of clothing, T-shirts and jeans, makes him more laid back than the average Chinese executive. Imagine the slightly underwhelming disappointment of Mark Zuckerberg, rather than the zany pinball personality of Elon Musk.

Born in 1983 in Longyan in the coastal province of Fujian with the highest proportion of emigrants to the Western world in all of China, Zhang is fiercely independent. While many people entering China's tech sector are comfortable landing a job at one of the pre-existing Chinese tech giants, Zhang ignored that route. He was not after the quick buzz of instant success: he played the long game.

Buy the book and start reading