{"id":16541,"date":"2022-07-16T11:31:22","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T11:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/?p=16541"},"modified":"2022-07-16T11:31:22","modified_gmt":"2022-07-16T11:31:22","slug":"who-made-tiktok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/who-made-tiktok","title":{"rendered":"Who Made TikTok?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_43 counter-flat ez-toc-counter ez-toc-light-blue ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69e4a255cbd89\" class=\"cssicon\"><span style=\"display: flex;align-items: center;width: 35px;height: 30px;justify-content: center;direction:ltr;\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/label><label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69e4a255cbd89\"  class=\"cssiconcheckbox\">1<\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69e4a255cbd89\" ><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/who-made-tiktok\/#Who_Made_TikTok\" title=\"Who Made TikTok?\">Who Made TikTok?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/who-made-tiktok\/#Zhang_Yiming\" title=\"Zhang Yiming\">Zhang Yiming<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/who-made-tiktok\/#ByteDance\" title=\"ByteDance\">ByteDance<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/who-made-tiktok\/#Oracle\" title=\"Oracle\">Oracle<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/who-made-tiktok\/#Walmart\" title=\"Walmart\">Walmart<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/who-made-tiktok\/#Chinese_government\" title=\"Chinese government\">Chinese government<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Who_Made_TikTok\"><\/span>Who Made TikTok?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin:0px 10px; width:auto; max-width:29% max-height:340px; height:auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/9ZOXCrz.jpg\" align=\"left\" alt=\"who made tiktok\">  <\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re curious to know who made Tikitok, you&#8217;ve come to the right place. There are several possible candidates, including a Chinese software developer, Zhang Yiming. But what does his background look like? In addition to Buddhist beliefs, Zhang Yiming is an avid user of chess and other video games. What&#8217;s more, he is a Buddhist, which is rare in China, where 18 percent of the population practices the religion.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Zhang_Yiming\"><\/span>Zhang Yiming<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While the company may seem like a social networking phenomenon, the reality is much different. It&#8217;s not just a video-sharing site \u2014 it&#8217;s a global network with the same goals. As a social network, TikTok connects millions of users across the globe. This is a major shift from the days when China censored YouTube. The Chinese government has taken note of its success and is putting a lot of pressure on Chinese companies to follow suit.<\/p>\n<p>In 2011, Zhang Yiming had an idea for an online news aggregator that was later known as Jinri Toutiao. The concept was based on artificial intelligence, but differs from Baidu, which pushes information by recommendations. Moreover, the company has a management style that resembles those in U.S. tech companies. Employees are discouraged from referring to Zhang as their boss.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"ByteDance\"><\/span>ByteDance<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The wildly popular TikTok video-sharing app is making its way into our lives. With over a billion active monthly users, it&#8217;s a popular choice for snackable content. However, most people don&#8217;t know where TikTok came from. Its creators, ByteDance, are from Beijing, China. They&#8217;ve gone by many other names and have even produced a Chinese version of the app.<\/p>\n<p>While the company has been accused of bias in censoring content, former employees have argued that the company did not censor problematic content. In fact, the censorship rules imposed by ByteDance were designed to protect Chinese users&#8217; privacy. According to a former employee, the company employed more than 10,000 content reviewers in China last year. Each product has its own content rules, which vary from country to country, but censorship guidelines prohibit political topics and content that criticize the Chinese government.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Oracle\"><\/span>Oracle<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While TikTok has become a popular entertainment app, the company that owns it is under a lot of scrutiny from Washington officials and consumers. The company&#8217;s proposed partnership with TikTok has received some criticism, but the news isn&#8217;t surprising considering the company&#8217;s history in intelligence and its ties to the Trump administration. Rather than settling for boring business-to-business business, Oracle is taking a more playful and youth-centric approach to the app.<\/p>\n<p>The TikTok deal with Oracle has a number of controversial aspects. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is a vocal supporter of President Trump. Ultimately, he was not the logical buyer of TikTok&#8217;s U.S. operations, but the company&#8217;s executives have ties to the president, and it is likely that they have influence over the deal. In addition to Oracle executives&#8217; close relationship with President Trump, the company&#8217;s CEO has even dined with him at the White House and served on his transition team after his election in 2016.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Walmart\"><\/span>Walmart<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In late August, it was revealed that Walmart was interested in purchasing a stake in TikTok. However, the company has been reluctant to talk about the deal. Previously, it teamed up with Microsoft for a bid. But despite being one of the biggest retailers in the world, Walmart has a lot to gain from a TikTok partnership. The company would have access to an entire demographic of users under 44, which is a growing market for advertisers. It could also broaden its brands and products.<\/p>\n<p>While the deal with Microsoft is unlikely to directly affect sales, it would give Walmart access to millions of Chinese users. In the United States, Walmart&#8217;s competitors are increasingly looking to TikTok as a new way to reach consumers. In China, the app Douyin is already a huge e-commerce platform. Walmart would love to tap into this growing audience, especially among young Chinese buyers. The retailer&#8217;s strategy would involve investing in TikTok to reach this audience.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Chinese_government\"><\/span>Chinese government<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The Chinese government may have made TikTok to spread misinformation and propaganda. It may also have censored some types of content. TikTok has already censored videos about the Tiananmen Square, Falun Gong, and Tibetan independence. Following a report in September, the company acknowledged this censorship. However, there are still many questions surrounding the use of TikTok by the Chinese government.<\/p>\n<p>Whether the Chinese government made TikTok to spy on its users is a controversial question. The Chinese government has a stake in TikTok parent company ByteDance. The Chinese government wants more state control of the tech sector in the country. Those who use TikTok should be concerned. While Chinese users may not be able to access the app, there are other apps similar to TikTok for them to use.<\/p>\n<p> <iframe width=\"506\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"283\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kqxbO067y4g\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"margin:0px auto; display: block;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who Made TikTok? If you&#8217;re curious to know who made Tikitok, you&#8217;ve come to the right place. There are several possible candidates, including a Chinese software developer, Zhang Yiming. But what does his background look like? In addition to Buddhist beliefs, Zhang Yiming is an avid user of chess and other video games. What&#8217;s more, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[321],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v21.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who Made TikTok? - Zeru<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/who-made-tiktok\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Made TikTok?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Who Made TikTok? 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