TikTok Boom

Book excerpt: A fascinating look behind the scenes of today's hottest social media app TikTok is the fastest growing app in the world, and the first to challenge Silicon Valley's dominance of social media. Why is TikTok so appealing to today's social media audience? How has it taken over the world in just a few years, and what does its success mean for the future of technology? In TikTok Boom, journalist and author of YouTubers Chris Stokel-Walker has interviewed scores of people connected to the world's hottest app, including current and former employees, as well as some of TikTok's biggest names in front of and behind the lens, gleaning never-before-seen insights as to how the new influencer ecosystem works. And he goes behind the scenes at its ambitious Chinese owner, ByteDance, which wants to become Beijing's answer to Google, and finds out what has happened to its founder, Yiming Zhang. TikTok Boom presents a nuanced, informed and incisive read on the characters and strategies behind the world's new tech order.