handles data, as well as how it moderates content.
There’s little doubting the quick-video service’s appeal to younger s. Even before the service was rebranded as TikTok, it was already doing well with the youth demographic as Musical.ly. However, since the name-change took effect, the service has increasingly gained in its appeal to kids, and that’s something many find worrying, including TikTok.
A new Wall Street Journal report explains that in spite of the app’s popularity, the company wants to move away from its core demographic. Citing a meeting that’s said to have taken place in 2018, TikTok CEO, Alex Zhu, made it clear to employees that relying so heavily on younger s runs the risk of the app becoming dated. Due to this, Zhu instructed the company to focus on moving away from kids and more on appealing to a wider audience.
TikTok Facing Uphill Battle With Older s
Arguably, the position TikTok finds itself in today is one many services would be more than happy with. One of the key trends in marketing right now is finding new ways to get younger s to engage more with a product, service, or platform, and that’s something TikTok has no problem with. The app itself saw a massive spike in s in 2019 and its rise seems somewhat unstoppable at the moment. However, the nature of the platform, and its ultra-short videos, remains a hurdle if TikTok wants to draw in a broader audience. While the service is free, and deliver viral videos to those same s.
Another issue facing TikTok is its advertising model in general. While the service might want to appeal to a wider base, it clearly understands how important the youth market is to rs and directly uses this as a pitch on its advertising pages. With TikTok so heavily relying on its youth advertising, it's unclear if the service ever will step out of that shadow and into the wider audience light, and especially if rs continue to be willing to spend big on a targeted and centric audience. In this sense, it might already be too late for TikTok to pivot away from its core base.
Source: WSJ