In
the present digital age, an application comes every once in a while, that
radically changes the aspect which it set out to target. In doing so, it enjoys
enormous popularity and becomes closely associated with that aspect thereon. A
few examples of this are Facebook’s impact on social media, YouTube and how it
revolutionized video-sharing, and Google becoming the other name for searching
anything on the internet. The newest addition to this list is TikTok and its
redefining of the short-video format.
This
short-video sharing application (previously named Musically) has become the
newest phenomenon raging through the internet. The short-video format makes
TikTok the first choice of people when it comes to sharing their creativity and
skill in bite-sized formats. The variety of content people publish on TikTok
brings in more people who join to be entertained and informed. However, its
relaxation in terms of content limits has landed it in various controversies
and bans as well.
Receiving
so much attention from the public has fittingly made TikTok a point of focus
and inspiration for other tech companies looking to hit big. The social media
giant Snapchat is the most recent addition to such companies looking to TikTok
for inspiration (or rather, plagiarism). Snapchat launched its ‘Spotlight’
feature that enables its users to record and upload short-videos and tag other
users in it. This new feature is backed by algorithms that bring the viewer
content similar to the one they are liking and viewing the most, just like
TikTok and Instagram’s Reels.
Snapchat is putting in quite some effort into promoting it and offering up to 1 million dollars to creators whose videos manage to engage the most number of users. This news comes as interesting as Snapchat and its feature has been the “inspiration” behind many tech companies who copied off its features to make their versions. It is only a matter of time before we see if this strategy manages to leave a mark on the users.