Eating For Free TikTok-ing Through the Apocalypse (Part 1)
In this two-part series we explore the international phenomenon and emerging social media platform: TikTok. From the failing Shanghai tech company that created Musical.ly to ByteDance's $1b acquisition in 2017, we explore how TikTok became the highest-valued startup to date now totalling over $75b. In part 1 we'll break down the app and its powerful machine learning technology, and how its Chinese roots are critical to understanding the future of the company.
Eating For Free is a bi-weekly gossip podcast reporting from the edge of the internet! We're a new wave of celebrity reporters at a time when pop culture is increasingly chaotic and media lacks the ability or moral direction to make sense of this capitalist nightmare!
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Sources:
- Meet the Head of TikTok, a 35-Year-Old Who Makes Employees Do Push-Ups if Their Videos Don't Get Enough Likes - Money, Julia Glum (2019)
- How a failed education startup turned into Musical.ly, the most popular app you've probably never heard of - Business Insider, Biz Carson (2016)
- Chinese Tech Firms Forced to Choose Market: Home or Everywhere Else - NYT, Paul Mozur
- My conversation with Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao - Technode, 2017
- Musical.ly, a Chinese App Big in the U.S., Sells for $1 Billion (Paul Mozur) - NYT, 2017
- Who's Too Young for an App? Musical.ly Tests the Limits - NYT, John Herrman, 2016
- The popular Musical.ly app has been rebranded as TikTok - The Verge, Dami Lee. (2018)
- These Teens Are Making Thousands a Month With Karaoke App Musical.ly - Money, Gabriela Fernandez
- AI In China: How Buzzfeed Rival ByteDance Uses Machine Learning To Revolutionize The News - Forbes, Bernard Marr
- A Look at Toutiao: China's Artificial Intelligence Powered News Platform - Wei Chun Chew, Medium
- The Hidden Forces Behind Toutiao: China's Content King - Ycombination, Anu Hariharan (2017
- The History of TikTok (TeenVogue)
- How TikTok is Rewriting the World (NewYorkTimes)
- TikTok, Explained (Vox)
- How TikTok Holds Our Attention (NewYorker)
- 32 Biggest Stars on TikTok (Business Insider)
- How 7 Brands are Using TikTok (HugSpot)
- TikTok and Activism (BBC)
- Meet the Head of TikTok (Money.com)
- How A Failed Startup Became Musical.ly (Business Insider)
- Chinese Tech Firms Forced to Choose Market (NewYorkTimes)
- My conversation with Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao (Technode)
- Musical.ly, a Chinese App Big in the U.S., Sells for $1 Billion (NewYorkTimes)
- Who's Too Young for an App? Musical.ly Tests the Limits (NewYorkTimes)
- The popular Musical.ly app has been rebranded as TikTok (The Verge)
- These Teens Are Making Thousands a Month With Karaoke App Musical.ly (Money.com)
- AI In China: How Buzzfeed Rival ByteDance Uses Machine Learning To Revolutionize The News (Forbes)
- How TikTok Took Over Music (Rolling Stone)
- Record Labels Demand More Money for Songs on TikTok App (Bloomberg)
- U.S. Army Looking Into National Security Concerns Over TikTok After Using It to Recruit Troops (Gizmodo)
- U.S. opens national security investigation into TikTok (Reuters)
- TikTok national security inquiry (CNBC)
- US investigating TikTok owner ByteDance (South China Morning Post)
- Before Mark Zuckerberg Tried To Kill TikTok (BuzzFeedNews)
- TikTok has moved into Facebook's backyard (CNBC)