TikTok wasn't always TikTok. Musical.ly Inc. was founded by long-time friends Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang in Shanghai, China. It was a popular short-form video streaming andsharing app, with 100+ million users. In 2018, the app was taken over by a Chinese company called ByteDance, and its users and content were moved to TikTok. Chapter 1: What Is TikTok? TikTok is a video platform with funny, educational, branded, and hard-hitting videos. Primarily, TikTok has been seen as entertainment. It's now one of the biggest social media networks in existence, predicted to overtake Instagram in the next few years. Quick-fire facts