The world's most downloaded app is now Chinese.

Tiktok has dethroned Facebook with its 850 million downloads worldwide and its 3 billion users.

A success that started with young people but now seems to be taking hold among adults, who are also increasingly addicted to small videos.

TikTok took the world's most downloaded mobile app spot in 2020 with 850 million downloads last year, ahead of Facebook and its messengers, a sign that the pandemic has amplified the success of the lightweight video platform beyond. of its initial audience, adolescents.

The rhythmic video platform, often musical or humorous, has more than 3 billion users worldwide.

This success can be explained in particular by its format.

Looping videos

The videos are very short, very efficient, most of them last a few seconds and you can easily share them with your friends.

As a result, we spend a lot of time on the application because they also scroll in a loop.

This explains the growing number of users and the fact that many young people have become completely addicted.

"You can stay on it for hours and hours at a time," assures a young user.

"I watch the app all day, sometimes even at night," added another.

"In the settings, you can set an alarm after 40 minutes and I always reach it", explains another follower.

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While the application was originally intended for a young audience, more and more adults are also downloading it.

From SVT teachers to musicians, including pizza delivery people, almost everyone now has their TikTok account.

To watch recipes, funny little sketches, dances, songs or even tips: for example how to peel an onion without crying.

"7 million views in a few hours"

There is therefore something for everyone, as explained by Tristan Mendès France, lecturer and expert in digital cultures.

"Each person has their own content thread. So 40-year-olds can find pleasure in it simply because the algorithms will succeed in exposing them to content that corresponds to them," he explains. 

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And the phenomenon can go very quickly. This is what happened for this group of eight young French people who work together and have an account called "Playhouse". In three weeks, they gained a million subscribers. A record in France. Charles is one of them, and now he even has an agent to help him create content. "We were nobody, we were in our living room dreaming. And in six months everyone stops us in the street to tell us about our videos and we made 7 million views in a few hours", explains the young man. man who still does not seem to realize this craze. Especially since for these young talents, the notoriety acquired on TikTok is now exported to real life and becomes a springboard for making cinema,music or modeling, depending on their goals.