Musical.ly, the popular lip-syncing app released in 2014, has been taken over by Chinese tech company ByteDance and rebranded as TikTok.
Musical.ly was created by two Chinese entrepreneurs, Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang, and was initially released in Shanghai in 2014. The app quickly gained popularity for its unique lip-syncing videos and soon became a global phenomenon. Within a few years, Musical.ly had reached more than 100 million users worldwide.
However, in 2017, ByteDance acquired Musical.ly for a reported $1 billion.
The company immediately began integrating the two platforms and rebranding the app as TikTok to better reflect its content mix of short videos and music clips.
TikTok has since become one of the most popular apps in the world with over 800 million users around the globe. It has become particularly popular among teens and young adults who use it to share funny videos, dance challenges, and other creative content.
The transition from Musical.ly to TikTok was not without its challenges. Many users were unhappy with the change as they felt like their favorite platform had been taken away from them without their consent.
Despite this initial backlash, however, TikTok has proven to be an overwhelmingly successful venture for ByteDance and its users alike. The platform continues to grow exponentially year after year as more people join it to create and share content.
Conclusion:
When ByteDance acquired Musical.ly in 2017 for $1 billion, it immediately began integrating the two platforms together and rebranding it as TikTok. Since then, TikTok has become one of the most popular apps in the world with over 800 million users around the globe enjoying its unique content mix of short videos and music clips despite initial backlash from some former Musical.ly fans who were unhappy with the change.