World-famous for 15 seconds

In an unintended consequence, the lockdown has made TikTok the social media sensation of the year.

On a Facebook Live recently, actress Twinkle Khanna joked that the coronavirus might be a scourge exported from China but its ‘remedy’ has also originated from the same country. She was referring to TikTok, of course. Yes, the joke is in bad taste (and not funny either), but her words only reflect the extraordinary popularity the video-sharing platform has garnered during the lockdown.

What was once a millennial hangout has suddenly gained much wider acceptance. Even the so-called social media elite (read TV, film and sport stars) have all taken to TikTok with a vengeance. Incidentally, these were the same people who till very recently believed Instagram was ‘classy’, Snapchat was ‘premium’ and TikTok was only ‘cringe’ (Read: Meant for non-urban commoners). The virus seems to have broken all such barriers though.

Funnily enough, government bodies and campaign organisations too have jumped in. The WHO, for instance, debuted on TikTok in February with a video on (what else) how to protect oneself from the virus. Several other public personas are posting video tours of their houses, their quarantine cooking, singing, dancing, meditation and some really duh-humour videos. No, really — the sort, which are so bad that they are good.

Number crunching

Consider the numbers. According to an American app-analytics firm Sensor Tower, TikTok was the most downloaded non-game app of March 2020.

In the first half of 2020, the app has been downloaded by two billion users with 611 million downloads from India alone. This makes nearly 30 per cent of the total number of people using TikTok, Indians!

A freshly-released list of 50 most famous TikTok stars from across the world has an overwhelming 21 Indians who’ve been rocking the virtual world with their works. Among these, some were already stars in their own right.

Some are popular television actors, choreographers or youth icons, but the majority have garnered attention and followers by sheer dint of their own talent and popular, trendy content that they have doled out regularly.

Is it escapism?

What gives, really? Is it good-old escapism? Are the videos really funny? Or is it just the democratisation of glamour and fame?

Perhaps, it is the fact that the app has provided a platform to individuals who maintain their individuality, while keeping up with trends. “It’s important to conform to the contemporary trend that is appealing to the viewers while at the same time, maintain your own style and individuality,” explains Nimish Patel, a self-proclaimed TikTok addict from Vadodara. The idea is to understand the trend and give it your ‘personal touch’, in order to stay relevant.

Look at Riyaz Afreen from Jaigaon in Bhutan, now settled in Mumbai. He is a 16-year-old TikTok star who goes by the name Riyaz Aly on TikTok and has a whopping 32.8 million followers.

Riyaz is an actor, influencer and a fashion blogger too. He has garnered a colossal following and popularity by posting lip-sync videos and skits that appeal to the youngsters.

He has already featured in music videos with Bollywood stalwarts such as Deepika Padukone, Shilpa Shetty and other TikTok stars. And there are others such as Faisal Shaikh, Aashika Bhatia, Awesha Darbar, Arishfa Khan, Sameeksha Sud, Bhavin Bhanushali and Vishal Pandey. Sameeksha Sud, Bhavin Bhanushali and Vishal Pandey also collaborate and perform by the name ‘Teen Tigada’.

Obscurity to fame

Most TikTok stars enjoy phenomenal success and amass followings even larger than many Bollywood stars. The app has hit the nail on the head by engaging with the youngsters as 41 per cent of its users are aged between 16-24. TikTok stars have been redefining success and the paths taken to reach to the top. And most TikTok stars get a first-hand experience of their popularity when they come out in the real physical world and meet the sea of fans waiting for hours on end, in long lines, just to get a glimpse of their favourite star.

In fact, TikTok has seen the most unreal obscurity-to-fame stories. The easy-to-use app has enabled small-town aspirants — actors, dancers, choreographers, singers, performers — to reach out to the masses and build a strong foundation to frog-leap into the entertainment world. So, the most unsuspecting users create content that goes viral.

These include hairdressers, handymen, police constables, homemakers, mechanics, hawkers, dhabawalas, plumbers and even school-going and college students. With TikTok, they’ve all managed to create their own niches in a virtual world where the sky’s the limit.

So what ticks on TikTok?

The fast rise in the popularity of the social media hasn’t given time to analysts to understand what ‘ticks’ and how TikTok has revolutionised the social networking world. “When the app was first launched, no one knew what to expect,” revealed Loren Gray with 40 million followers on TikTok, the highest in the world. “It took a few months for the app to transform to its current avatar and till then everyone was just trying to ‘figure it out’,” she said in an interview.

“TikTok is an organic platform. No one really knows what clicks,” says 18-year-old media student from Karwar, Lakshmi S, who is “not an active content creator” but “follows the trends” closely. There is no template or format to follow in TikTok, she maintains.

The main reason for TikTok resonating strongly with the new-age generation is that content creators belong to the same age group and share a lot in common such as preferences, habits, stories, style, humour, problems, relationship woes, choices, etc. Focussing on teenagers as a target audience seems to have worked well too for the app.

The money trail

While some TikTok users have been using the app only to showcase their skills and garner fans, there are those who are using TikTok like a full-time occupation, creating popular content, accumulating followers and monetising it by landing brand endorsements, creating videos for popular YouTube channels, giving live performances and even participating in talent-based reality shows across television channels in the nation.

TikTok has also enabled small businesses and entrepreneurs from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in the country to draw in potential consumers through customised marketing strategies. The marketing campaigns entail ‘influencing’ followers by showcasing products, services or skills through short videos.

The economics of TikTok has taken the world by surprise. Zhang Yiming, the unassuming owner of ByteDance, had set a revenue target of USD 16.8 billion in 2019 for TikTok that has been valued at more than USD 75 billion today. The success has been replicated by popular stars using the app to supplement their work and those TikTok stars who are approached for marketing, brand endorsements, events, etc.

Take the case of 17-year-old Asif Ansari who works as a mechanic in his father’s garage in Ludhiana. He downloaded TikTok in early 2019 and garnered 90k followers by year-end by posting videos of his antics and stunts using materials from his father’s garage. His videos started trending and he soon started getting offers to endorse products from local companies, small businesses, etc. But no, Asif has no plans of leaving his family work. “Ye sab aaj hai, kal ka kya bharosa,” he says, in sync with his father’s philosophy.

Risking everything for likes?

Like every other social media app, TikTok has had its share of moments of shame. Besides an occasional ban in a few countries including India, which was eventually reversed, lawsuits, allegations of data theft and compromising of national security, the most direct threat came from dangerous TikTok ‘challenges’ that went viral.

The unreasonable craving of the youth to become popular and gather likes even led to serious injuries and irreparable damage in some cases. Some of these so-called challenges include:

The Choking Challenge that peaked in 2017 where the bet was to strangulate oneself for a brief span and record it, risking brain damage, even death.

The Fire Challenge that involved dousing a portion of one’s body with an inflammable liquid and lighting it up to record the effect.

The Skull Breaker Challenge where two participants engage with a third to jump in sync and instead, kick him/her off balance by kicking his/her feet. The ensuing fall on one’s back was perhaps funny to some, but dangerous to most.

There were also the Hot Water Challenge, Snorting Challenge, Concussion Challenge and
others.

Jodhpur’s Jackson

A rather plain-looking two-storied house in a row of similar structures in Jodhpur’s arid landscape would normally go unnoticed. That is, if it were not for the constant flow of visitors to its gated entrance. The house belongs to Yuvraj Singh, better known as Baba Jackson, a teen sensation and TikTok star with millions of followers. He is just one of the thousands of success stories scripted by TikTok in India.

“I am still in disbelief of the love and attention I have received. When I first started dancing, I never thought I will reach here,” grins a soft-spoken and demure Baba Jackson, whose popularity has been endorsed by Hrithik Roshan, Varun Dhawan, Amitabh Bachchan, Raveena Tandon and the Who’s Who of the Hindi film industry. Why, even Hrithik tagged him as “the smoothest air-walker” when he shared Baba’s video, making him an instant hit.

Like most other TikTok artistes who have found fame by their sheer dint of talent despite limited means, Yuvraj started making dance videos, improvising on Michael Jackson’s hook steps and moves on his own terrace. His Side Glides, Circle Glides and Spins went on to stun the world of dance. Now, even after all the fame, Baba hasn’t changed. “I still make my videos the same way by resting my mobile against a wall, not on a tripod...nothing has changed,” accepts Yuvraj reacting to his popularity. “But yes, I still can’t believe Varun Dhawan stood in front of me when I performed,” he says, sharing his experience of the meet. Yuvraj’s mother Neelima can’t conceal her happiness as she beams with joy when asked about her son’s extraordinary success. “It all feels like a dream,” she says. A sentiment shared by her two daughters who are their brother’s biggest fans. It’s with distinct pride that they ‘show off’ their ‘star bhaiyya’ before their friends.

However, things aren’t exactly hunky-dory for him as with any other star. From an array of fake profiles, trolling, rumours and fake stories, Baba has suffered them all. “It’s funny that some of my fake profiles have more followers than my original one.”

(inputs from Rashmi Vasudeva)