It seems like yesterday that TikTok was the “next big thing” with hundreds of millions of users active on a daily basis. However, as its future becomes more and more uncertain, a new contender has risen.
Triller shot to the top of the charts Saturday morning becoming the #1 app worldwide, shortly after President Trump announced that he would ban TikTok from the United States.
Tensions began rising for TikTok after concerns circulated over its use of user data, and the app was subsequently banned from both Australia and India. For an app that quickly took off in the world of social media, it’s presence may become short lived.
Triller, a U.S. based app, stated that user downloads have increased by 20x over the past week, reaching over 250 million downloads worldwide.
The platform was originally created with the intent of supporting musicians. This is not a new concept for many artists as Cardi B, Chance the Rapper, Alicia Keys and Chris Brown were all posting to the platform last year.
Recently, however, the app has gained even more traction as it has acquired Halogen Networks, which it will use to pay-per-view live stream Mike Tyson's return to boxing when he faces off with Roy Jones Jr. Leading up to Tyson’s return to the ring, famous YouTuber Jake Paul will be facing NBA star Nate Robinson. Paul has over 20 million subscribers on YouTube alone, making the fight guaranteed to boost Triller’s popularity as it is the sole sponsor of the event.
Jaeson Ma, co-owner of Triller, had previously invested in Music.ly which later became TikTok. While Triller has begun to adapt to similar concepts as TikTok, such as hosting an array of creators and producing new and similar features, the platforms differentiate in many ways. On Triller, all songs are streamed through Apple Music, and each time a song is played it counts as a stream, and the creator is paid.
Part of Triller’s push also happened through TikTok. Ma signed many influencers on the platform and had them promote Triller on all social media platforms. Sway LA is a great example of this with Griffin Johnson and Bryce Hall posting on IG stories and TikTok with Triller branded swag.
To mitigate the situation, TikTok U.S. General Manager Vanessa Pappas posted a video to TikTok ensuring users that the app is not going anywhere. However, this promise could be threatened if Microsoft is not able to acquire ownership of the platform in the coming weeks.
Other apps like Instagram Reels are also hoping to become the next TikTok, but with uncertainty over the future, nobody truly knows what the next few weeks will look like.
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