Douyin and Tik Tok are the fastest growing apps on the market despite people's mixed opinions. Photo: IC

 

The popularity of Tik Tok beyond China is a chance for Chinese culture to be known abroad. Photo: VCG

The other day, my mom, who lives in Switzerland, sent me a short video clip of an indoor swimming pool so cramped with Chinese bathers that it was literally a sea of people. When the camera zoomed out and the indoor pool started to produce artificial waves, the metaphor became even more vivid. The impressive shot was accompanied by "Superstars" of Lithuanian singer Beatrich.

But what really blew me away was the logo placed in the top left corner: a lower case "d" in white with green and red edging. It's the logo of Douyin, a Chinese video-sharing platform that has pretty much captured all eyeballs of the below-30 year-olds over the past year in China. In the first quarter of 2018, Douyin's international version, Tik Tok, was the most downloaded iPhone app worldwide, totaling 45.8 million and surpassing Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, according to the American research company Sensor Tower.

Instant gratification

Users consume a variety of content on the app, prominently underlined with music and soundtracks. Metropolitan did a small street survey to find out what types of entertainment people enjoy on Douyin.

A high school student surnamed Li said she likes to watch comedy, jokes, and "heartwarming" pets videos.

A fresh graduate surnamed Xia said he likes to follow trends, watch beautiful nature scenes and people who lip-sync or sing.

PhD candidate surnamed Wu, on the other hand, feels awkward about Douyin videos because he doesn't quite get what the video creators want to express.

"I just can't stand it," he said. Some criticize that the content available in the short-video form on Douyin doesn't add anything to society and people who enjoy watching it show signs of "bad taste."

Indonesia recently banned Tik Tok, the overseas version of Douyin, because of "improper content," tech magazine The Passage reported in June.

But why are short-form videos getting so popular nevertheless? To understand what happens with us when we watch short videos, I spoke with Allie Wang, a Phd student studying psychology at Yale University and CEO of a startup in the field of subconscious marketing and design.

"People's attention is limited," Wang explained. "The shorter the video is, the easier it is for the user to experience gratification."

"The experience of a fast sequence of gratification will encourage them to watch more," Wang said. As a consequence, she thinks that people are naturally drawn to short videos.

But there is a second reason Wang mentions: people like to be taken to a different world and learn from stories.

"It makes them realize that people lead lives that differ from their own," she said.

Short-form video consumption data released by Douyin is indeed on the rise, according to the online tech media source The Passage in June. People spend 7.4% of their time on short videos in the first quarter of 2018, compared to 1.5% the year before. At the same time, viewership for longer content faded by 45% compared to last year during the same period and Douyin boasts 300 million active users in China.

A trend has gone global

Douyin has long expanded beyond Chinese borders. The clip my mom had sent to me from Switzerland to China was transferred to her from a working colleague, whose daughter was very active on Tik Tok - the global version of Douyin. According to The Passage, the Chinese Internet giant that owns Douyin, Bytedance, has rebranded the popular Western teenage app Musical.ly under the name of Tik Tok in August. It's part of Bytedance's strategy to tap into Western markets with Tik Tok.

Hence the most popular Douyin videos of China are now shared in Tik Tok communities in Thailand, Germany, the US, and beyond.

"It's an opportunity for Chinese culture to be known and to be noticed by foreigners," Wang said. She added that this is an important factor for China to see and understand what to convey to people from other countries from around the world and hear their responses. 

Metropolitan talked to two expats in Beijing to see how they perceive China through Tik Tok.

Liza, a 20-year old Beijing expat from the UK, had used Tik Tok with her friend before and thinks it's a fun pass-time activity when she's bored.

"I had never heard of it when I was in England, but when I came to Asia, everyone's using it," she said, mentioning having used the app in Thailand and Vietnam as well.

For people that have never been to China, getting an impression of the country from Tik Tok "makes China seem like a friendly, more fun and open place," according to Liza.

"They think China is very, very different when people actually share the same passion of singing and dancing as Western people," she said.

Cecilia, a Norwegian expat in Beijing, agreed that Tik Tok users might be surprised that China was not as "serious as we might think it is. It gives a more light-hearted impression of China," she said.

My mom might not be the target user of Tik Tok, but as the short-form videos become viral, they get shared across different platforms until they magically end up on her phone where she transfers them back to her daughter, who lives where the video was originally produced - China. As with many cultural and entertainment products, the value it adds to society may not be obvious. In the best case, Tik Tok videos might add to cultural exchange and understanding among the global community. Or at least, people get a good laugh or a "Wow" out of it after a long day in school or at work.