TikTok
Walled gardenCulver City, California, United States · Founded 2016
10001+ employees · Not Publicly Traded
TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service that enables users to create and share short-form videos across a wide range of genres. With nearly two billion monthly active users, TikTok offers significant marketing potential for businesses, particularly given that 70% of surveyed users report discovering new brands on the platform. Its paid advertising system helps businesses reach targeted audiences through multiple ad formats, including In-Feed ads, Brand Takeovers, TopView, Branded Hashtag Challenges, Branded Effects, Spark Ads, and Branded Mission. The platform's targeting capabilities support audience segmentation across demographics, interests, behaviors, and device types, and advertisers can build custom audiences based on engagement with specific content or hashtags. TikTok also provides brands with production and measurement tools, including TikTok One for creator-brand collaboration and TikTok Market Scope, an analytics tool that tracks user behavior across the full buyer journey from awareness through to conversion. In 2023, nearly 30,000 companies advertising more than 35,500 brands collectively spent $3.8 billion on TikTok advertising, with media, entertainment, and retail sectors among the heaviest spenders.
Where they sit
Stack tier: Core Platforms (S)
One of the world's largest short-form video platforms and a major digital advertising channel, competing directly with Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts for creator content and ad spend
Ownership
Subsidiaries