美國中學生午休時間喜歡干什么？答案是：刷抖音——的海外版Tiktok。美國青少年也跟中國孩子們一樣，喜歡刷那些時長15秒到60秒不等的小視頻——里面可能有他們的朋友正在對口型模仿碧昂絲唱歌。在放學回到家后，美國青少年們依然沉迷于TikTok里小哥哥們的滑板絕技或者小姐姐們的“社會搖”——這也算中國特色的文化輸出了吧？

即便是在那些熱門應用里，TikTok也可以稱得上鶴立雞群。自從兩年前上架以來，它的下載次數(shù)已破9.5億。其用戶大多數(shù)是以娛樂為目的或是想讓全世界看到自己唱歌跳舞或展示某些特殊技能的青少年。

TikTok在海外受歡迎的程度超過了很多人的想象，甚至已經(jīng)成為了一款現(xiàn)象級應用。根據(jù)應用分析公司Sensor Tower的數(shù)據(jù)，今年1至3月，抖音的下載量達到全球第三名，甚至超過了Facebook和Instagram，僅次于WhatsApp和Facebook Messenger。

“TikTok上都是雜亂無章但卻呈現(xiàn)病毒式傳播的小視頻，作者沒有預算，產量也很低?！?Sensor Tower公司的移動業(yè)務分析總監(jiān)蘭迪·尼爾森表示：“Instagram和YouTube等應用早已度過了成熟期，相比之下，TikTok則是一個‘狂野西部’?！?/p>

不過隨著用戶的增長，TikTok上的內容已經(jīng)從粗枝濫造變得日益精細，它的視頻編輯工具也越來越先進。重演喜劇電影的經(jīng)典橋段和視頻烹飪教程，只是TikTok上流行內容的一個縮影。

不過，小視頻應用也是一個特別難做的生意，只要有新的、更好的創(chuàng)意出來，用戶就會毫不猶豫地喜新厭舊。小視頻應用也特別難賺到錢，到目前為止，真正實現(xiàn)盈利的小視頻應用微乎其微。

推特（Twitter）在這方面顯然是有發(fā)言權的。2012年，它以3000萬美元收購了當時還很火爆的小視頻應用Vine。Vine允許用戶拍攝和分享6秒鐘的小視頻。在很短的一段時間內，Vine還算是挺火爆的。但這股熱潮很快就涼了，推特也在2016年關閉了這項服務。

TikTok拒絕對此文發(fā)表評論。TikTok的母公司字節(jié)跳動是一家中國科技巨頭，2012年由微軟公司的前工程師張一鳴創(chuàng)立。字節(jié)跳動的第一個產品今日頭條也廣為中國網(wǎng)友熟悉。在新聞和娛樂領域做出幾次嘗試后，張一鳴于2016年在中國市場推出了抖音。一年后，字節(jié)跳動又推出了抖音的海外版，是為Tiktok。

TikTok并非是一夜走紅的。在TikTok推出后，字節(jié)跳動以近10億美元收購了由中資控股的小視頻應用Musical.ly。當時這款應用在美國青少年中已經(jīng)非常流行了，很多人用它來拍自己對口型假唱的小視頻。很快，張一鳴將它整合進了TikTok中，TikTok的發(fā)展自此進入騰飛期。

TikTok的火紅也吸引了Facebook的注意。去年，F(xiàn)acebook也發(fā)布了自家的熱門小視頻分享應用Lasso。但Sensor Tower公司的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，截止到今年6月，Lasso的下載次數(shù)只有18.7萬次。與此同時，F(xiàn)acebook旗下的Instagram也在產品中添加了類似TikTok的功能。比如去年，Instagram在“故事”中添加了音樂功能。從今年5月開始，Instagram允許用戶在視頻中添加歌詞，這樣觀眾就可以跟著一起唱了。

但這些都沒有減緩TikTok的飛速增長。根據(jù)分析公司App Annie的數(shù)據(jù)，2019年第一季度，僅是美國的安卓手機用戶，就在這款應用上總計花費了8500萬個小時的時間，幾乎是去年同期的5倍。

紀源資本（GGV Capital）的合伙人童士豪早年間曾經(jīng)是Musical.ly的投資人和董事會成員，他表示：“字節(jié)跳動光是在人工智能領域里，就有數(shù)百名工程師，而且字節(jié)跳動的算法是很有名的，它非常擅長識別你喜歡什么，以及你喜歡與別人分享什么。”

TikTok的崛起也伴隨著不少的爭議。今年，TikTok已經(jīng)兩次因為其青少年用戶的問題也監(jiān)管機構產生齟齬。第一次是美國聯(lián)邦貿易委員會指控Musical.ly非法收集青少年個人信息，這件事雖然發(fā)生在它與TikTok合并之前，但字節(jié)跳動還是支付了570萬美元的和解費。在此次和解后，TikTok開始清理13歲以下的用戶，這也是美國允許使用該應用程序的最低年齡。

TikTok在當時的一份聲明中說：“我們的首要任務，是為所有用戶創(chuàng)造一種安全舒適的體驗。”

今年4月，印度高等法院又因涉嫌傳播色情、增加青少年風險為由“封殺”了TikTok。TikTok立即向法院承諾將解決這些問題，于是兩周后，印度又解除了對TikTok的禁令。

字節(jié)跳動并非一家上市公司，所以它并未披露關于TikTok的財務細節(jié)。但由于它的業(yè)務還在拓展階段，可以肯定TikTok必然是虧錢的。

與很多其他的APP一樣，TikTok也賣廣告。但它也在越來越多地嘗試其他賺錢方法。

比如說，企業(yè)可以給TikTok付錢，贊助所謂的“標簽挑戰(zhàn)”活動。用戶會被鼓勵分享帶有贊助商廣告標簽的視頻。Guess Jeans是第一家嘗試這種推廣方法的美國企業(yè)。標簽會要求用戶拍攝一段顯示自己“一夜暴富”的小視頻，在TikTok的視頻編輯工具的幫助下，用戶的衣服從破衣爛衫迅速變成了整潔的牛仔褲。然后這些視頻會被打上“穿著我的牛仔褲”（InMyDenim）的標簽分享出去。

截止到今天，打有“#InMyDenim”標簽的視頻，已經(jīng)被網(wǎng)友觀看了3770萬次。

另外，要想與其他社交媒體搶奪廣告收入，TikTok還是有很多工作要做的。App Annie公司的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，除中國外，TikTok在海外每月只有1.5億名活躍用戶，這表明許多人下載了TikTok之后并不經(jīng)常使用它。相比之下，F(xiàn)acebook （包括Instagram和WhatsApp）則擁有24億名月活躍用戶。數(shù)字營銷公司Ignite Visibility的首席執(zhí)行官約翰·林肯也表示，目前TikTok的廣告實力仍然非常有限。

另一點與Facebook不同的是，TikTok無法根據(jù)特定用戶的興趣來投放廣告，因為TikTok的用戶并不會過多分享自己的個人信息。

與此同時，還有越來越多的營銷人員繞過了TikTok的銷售團隊，直接與TikTok上的網(wǎng)紅做生意。有些網(wǎng)紅會通過使用某品牌的產品或者分享某個特定標簽來賺錢，而TikTok則分享不到這筆收入。

奧斯汀·斯普林茲是TikTok上的一名網(wǎng)紅，今年23歲，來自于亞利桑那州的坦佩市。他在TikTok上擁有240多萬名粉絲。他不愿透露自己賺了多少錢，但表示，在TikTok上發(fā)視頻，已經(jīng)成了他們這些網(wǎng)紅的全職工作。

他表示：“我們差不多每天都這么做，從早上起床開始，到晚上睡覺為止?！?/p>

畢竟，他們能否成功掙到錢，取決于幾百萬青少年喜不喜歡他們，這一點對于TikTok 也是一樣。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

本文另一版本登載于《財富》雜志2019年7月刊，標題為《TikTok的狂歡》。

譯者：樸成奎

During lunchtime at middle schools across the U.S., adolescents stare at 15- to 60-second clips of their friends lip-?synching to Beyoncé on the video-sharing app TikTok. At home, it’s more of the same: Tap on TikTok, scroll through a feed of clips featuring shimmies to Shakira or skateboard stunts, and then pick one to watch.

Even in the annals of viral apps, TikTok is a standout. Since debuting two years ago, it has been downloaded 950 million times—mostly by teens seeking snippets of entertainment or looking to share their own rapping, dancing, or magic skills with the world.

TikTok is so popular in fact that, by one measure, it ranks among a who’s who of tech. During the first three months of this year, it was the third most downloaded app worldwide, ahead of Facebook and Instagram, and just behind WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower.

“TikTok’s all about these scrappy viral videos shot with no budget and low production,” says Randy Nelson, head of mobile insights at Sensor Tower. “Unlike on Instagram or YouTube, which are far beyond their maturation point, TikTok’s a Wild West.”

Still, with the growth, TikTok is quickly morphing from its roots in amateurish lip-synching clips to a destination for more elaborate videos cut with increasingly sophisticated editing tools. Reenactments of movie comedy scenes and cooking tutorials are just some of what’s popular on the app.

But video apps are a particularly fickle business, as users inevitably flock to the next big thing. They’re also notoriously difficult to make money from—so much so that few, if any, have ever turned a profit.

Twitter, for example, learned the hard way, after jumping on the video bandwagon in 2012 by paying $30 million for Vine, a then-hot app that let users shoot and share six-second clips. For a short period of time, Vine flourished. But the fad quickly passed, prompting Twitter to shutter the service in 2016.

TikTok, which declined to comment for this article, is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese tech conglomerate founded in 2012 by former Microsoft engineer Zhang Yiming. The company’s first product provided users with a personalized list of news headlines. After a few more forays into news and entertainment, Zhang introduced Douyin, a video-sharing app for the Chinese market, in 2016. A year later, ByteDance created an equivalent video app for overseas users under the brand name TikTok.

It was hardly an overnight success. But then ByteDance paid nearly $1 billion for Chinese-owned Musical.ly, which had gained impressive traction among U.S. teens who used it to share short videos of themselves lip-synching. Zhang soon folded it into TikTok, which then started to take off.

Facebook is clearly paying attention. Last year, it introduced its own rival video-sharing app, Lasso. But the wannabe-TikTok has been downloaded just 187,000 times as of June, according to Sensor Tower. Meanwhile, Facebook-owned Instagram is also adding TikTok-like features. Last year, for instance, Instagram incorporated music into Stories, its ephemeral feed of photos and videos, while in May it started letting users append song lyrics to their videos so viewers could sing along.

But none of that has slowed TikTok’s rapid growth. In the first quarter, on Android phones alone, U.S. users spent 85 million hours in the app, nearly five times as many hours as were spent during the same period last year, according to analytics firm App Annie.

“ByteDance has hundreds of engineers in A.I. alone and is known for its algorithms, which are just really good at figuring out what you like and sharing with you other stuff it thinks you’ll like,” says Hans Tung, a managing partner at investment firm GGV Capital who was an early backer and board member of Musical.ly.

TikTok’s rise has come with controversy. Twice this year, it ran afoul of regulators over its young users. In February, ByteDance paid $5.7 million to settle allegations by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that Musical.ly, before merging into TikTok, had illegally collected data about minors. Following the settlement, TikTok started purging users under 13, the minimum age for using the app in the U.S.

“It’s our priority to create a safe and welcoming experience for all of our users,” TikTok said in a statement at the time.

Then, in April, India’s high court banned TikTok over concerns that it had helped spread pornography and put minors at risk. Judges lifted the ban two weeks later, after TikTok assured the court it would address the issues.

ByteDance, which is privately owned, doesn’t disclose financial details about TikTok. But because its business is still a work in progress, TikTok is almost certainly a money loser.

Like many other apps, TikTok sells ads. But it’s also increasingly experimenting with other ways to generate revenue.

Companies can pay TikTok to run sponsored “hashtag challenges,” in which users are encouraged to share videos using a hashtag affiliated with the advertiser. Guess Jeans was the first U.S. company to give it a try. The label asked users to shoot “rags to riches” videos showing people instantly changing—with the help of TikTok’s editing tools—from scruffy sweats into dapper denim, and then to share the clips with an “InMyDenim” hashtag.

To date, videos with “#InMyDenim” have been viewed 37.7 million times.

Nevertheless, TikTok still has a lot of work to do if it wants to compete against the social media giants for ad dollars. Excluding China, TikTok has only 150 million monthly active users worldwide, according to App Annie, indicating that many people who have downloaded TikTok’s app don’t use it. Facebook, in contrast, has 2.4 billion monthly users across its family of apps, which includes Instagram and ?WhatsApp. And right now, ?TikTok has very limited advertising abilities, says John Lincoln, CEO of digital marketing firm Ignite Visibility.

Unlike Facebook, TikTok can’t target ads to particular users based on their interests. TikTok’s users simply don’t share as much personal information about themselves.

Increasingly, marketers are bypassing TikTok’s sales team to cut deals directly with TikTok influencers. These social media tastemakers earn money by using the brand’s products or sharing a particular hashtag—but TikTok doesn’t share in the revenue.

Austin Sprinz, a 23-year-old from Tempe, Ariz., who has over 2.4 million followers on TikTok, says he and his brother have been approached for such deals. He declines to say how much money they’ve earned, but posting TikTok videos is their full-time job.

“We pretty much do it every day, from when we wake up to when we go to bed,” says Sprinz.

In the end, their success depends on millions of flighty teens. And so does TikTok’s.

A version of this article appears in the July 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline “TikTok Is on a Tear.”