The Reason Facebook is at War with TikTok

Facebook and TikTok are battling toe to toe. From TikTok hiring Facebook employees (and paying them more) to Facebook starting multiple TikTok-like apps, the two companies have been pulling no punches. On the surface, it seems obvious – they are brawling over control of the industry. But when you dig a tad deeper, your shovel will find a chest containing a hidden gem. The real reason Facebook is at war with TikTok.

China’s Facebook?

You’ve probably never heard of ByteDance, unless you live in China. ByteDance is a tech company which launched in 2012. It is currently worth about $75 billion, making it the most valuable private company in the world. Sometimes compared to Facebook, ByteDance creates social platforms. Its two most well known apps are Toutiao, an AI powered news aggregator app with at least 250 million downloads, and a small app called Douyin, known in the US as TikTok.

A few years before becoming TikTok, the app was known as Musical.ly. It was around this time that the war began. Seeing the potential of Musical.ly, Facebook tried to purchase it. And they kept trying. Six months and no deal later, it became apparent the Facebook would not be able to get Musical.ly…But where they had failed, ByteDance had been successful. Musical.ly was later rebranded as TikTok, launched in 2018 and the rest is history. Perhaps this is the real reason Facebook is at war with TikTok. As ByteDance continues to grow, they will become more than a match for Facebook. How will this clash of the social media titans end? Only time will tell. TikTok, TikTok….

Author: Donnell Peavy