Singapore – TikTok has announced the third edition of its TikTok Music Night which is a post-Valentine’s Day celebration in Asia – ”Love Edition” – to be streamed live on the TikTok app in February 18 at 7:30 p.m. SGT.
TikTok Music Night Asia “Love Edition” will feature some of the top romantic artists in the region, such as MICappella from Singapore, Ariel Tsai from Taiwan, Layla Sania from Malaysia as well as Filipino performer Route 83, and Indonesia’s Afgan, among many others.
Through the event, TikTok aims to promote creativity and bring joy to the public. The first live stream stage was in October 2020 and has expanded well beyond Korea to other countries across Southeast Asia, including Singapore. Recent editions featured internationally acclaimed artists, such as Pentatonix, Lauv, and Conan Gray, among others.
Aside from the local up-and-coming artists from Asia, the “Love Edition” will also feature guest performances from international artists such as Pink Sweat$ performing ‘At My Worst’ followed by Max, whose hit romantic song ‘Blueberry Eyes’ featured Suga of BTS. Local Singapore artists, such as Benjamin Kheng ft. J.Sheon and EstelleFly will also perform in the live stream event.
Here are the following Asian artists on the upcoming Music Night:
● MICappella, Singapore
● 蔡佩軒 Ariel Tsai, Taiwan
● 鄭心慈 Kelly Cheng, Taiwan
● cinnamons × evening cinema, Japan
● ALEXA, Korea
● MOMMY SON (Feat. Wonstein, Chanjuicy), Korea
● Layla Sania, Malaysia
● NOAH & Shakira Jasmine, Indonesia
● Afgan, Indonesia
● Route 83, Philippines
● Alisson Shore, Philippines
● Violette Wautier, Thailand
● Earth Patravee, Thailand
● CARA, Vietnam
Singapore – App marketing platform Adjust joins the TikTok Marketing Partner Program in order to optimize advertising visibility for advertisers in the short video-sharing platform.
The partnership includes integration of Adjust’s ‘Audience Builder’, enabling clients to export first-party data, such as audience groups, directly to TikTok from the Adjust dashboard. Adjust’s ‘Audience Builder’ helps advertisers retarget their campaigns based on focus groups such as age groups. As advertisers are armed with this data from audience segregation, marketers can run highly personalized campaigns to boost user engagement and loyalty, all while protecting their users’ data privacy.
The TikTok Marketing Partner Program is part of the TikTok for Business platform, and aims to provide marketing solutions designed to give brands and marketers the tools to be creative storytellers and be able to meaningfully engage with the TikTok community.
As a mobile measurement partner, Adjust enables advertisers create, optimize, target, and measure their ad campaigns on TikTok. To simplify campaign optimization, clients can link their TikTok account to view and edit TikTok campaign data directly in the Adjust Automate dashboard, another Adjust feature that allows advertisers to automate their mobile marketing campaigns. From there, advertisers can generate cross-app, cross-partner, and cross-network reports.
“Finding and retaining the right users is critical, as many drop off after the first days of installing the app and competition for users’ eyeballs is fierce. That is why it is imperative for mobile advertisers to push the right messaging to the right audience at the right point in the marketing funnel,” said Andrey Kazakov, vice president of partnerships at Adjust.
“We are excited to partner with TikTok to give marketers a simpler, more seamless way to segment their desired audiences, automate their campaigns, measure ad spend, and grow their apps,” Kazakov added.
Manila, Philippines – The Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), a science agency dedicated to research and development in relation to energy resources and technology innovation in the country, has teamed up with short-video platform TikTok in raising science and technology awareness in the country.
According to a report from the Philippine News Agency, the partnership will entail popularizing research and development through a series of training and launching contests on the platform, namely #PinoyInnovator challenge, which focuses on creating a ‘gadget’ using household items, and another #PinoyScience challenge which requires TikTok users explain some of PCIEERD’s recent projects in layman terms.
“TikTok looks at this partnership as its contribution in creating a platform for people to learn. The partnership provides them with educational content that can be viewed by their users,” according to a statement by PCIEERD Executive Director Enrico Paringit.
He added, “The new partnership will provide capacity building for researchers and science communicators. Training will be done via Zoom meetings and will be facilitated by TikTok content creators.”
The partnership stems from the initial invitation of TikTok, encouraging PCIEERD to create an account on the platform in line with its popular ‘Pinoy Science’ Facebook page.
The #PinoyInnovator contest will run from February to March, and a winner shall be announced on April this year, while the #PinoyScience contest is slated to run from April to July to this year, with winners to be announced monthly.
Singapore – Korean actor Kim Seon-ho, known for his rise to prominence for the 2020 K-drama ‘Start-Up’ is hosting his first global fan meet on the social media platform TikTok, with representation from SALT Entertainment, the agency Kim is signed for.
‘Start-Up’, an original series from video streaming service Netflix, swiftly rose to popularity when it began airing on the platform in October. The show has been ranked as the 8th most popular show on the platform globally, and has also consistently entered Netflix’s top list across many regions.
With the show’s popularity, Kim Seon-ho, who played the part of a team leader at the fictional SH Venture Capital, has simultaneously received heightened recognition from fans.
The upcoming live show, slated on TikTok Stage Connect, the online concert arm of TikTok, exclusively, will be composed of a variety of sessions, which include listening to behind-the-scenes stories of Start-Up, playing a telepathy game to guess Kim Seon-ho’s preferences, and watching him grant his fans’ wishes.
“Through the platform, we hope to offer fans in Singapore and around the world a chance to support and interact with their favorite celebrities and artists live. Kim Seon-ho has certainly captured the hearts of many and brought happiness through his TV dramas, and we look forward to jointly hosting this online fan meeting with SALT Entertainment,” said Kai Zhi Loh, SEA regional senior marketing manager at TikTok.
Pre-events will be also posted on TikTok’s event page, where fans can submit requests for what they want to hear from Kim Seon-ho or even upload a duet with the actor. The pre-event is expected to air globally, with participants from across different countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Korea.
“We sincerely appreciate the attention and support that fans have given to Kim Seon-ho in 2020. To relieve the sadness of not being able to meet in person due to COVID-19 and show appreciation for all the support, we have prepared the first global online fan meet-up. We ask for your huge support and active participation as we work hard to organize the virtual event,” SALT Entertainment shared.
The global live event will be streamed on January 17 at 7 pm (Singapore) and will be streamed both in English and Korean on TikTok’s event page and the actor’s TikTok account respectfully.
India – India’s version of TikTok, short-video app Chingari, has announced that it has collaborated with short-video news app Dekko to introduce infotainment to its users.
With this partnership, Chingari aims to make video content on news and information more accessible and shareable.
The Chingari app. Image from Google Play.
Dekko is an early-stage start-up that is focused on delivering trending news summarized in 30 seconds for a Non-English-speaking audience. The tie-up is designed to specifically serve Hindi-speaking consumers across the globe. Chingari will be boosting content accessibility in various genres including politics, business, and entertainment, as well as international, technology, and lifestyle for the news consumers of Dekko.
The Dekko app. Image from Google Play.
“We are delighted that Chingari users will now have [access] to the latest news and happening across the world from Dekko. Our aim is to provide a seamless experience to our millions of users to keep themselves updated with the events occurring around the world along with creating and watching interesting content,” said Chingari’s CEO and Co-Founder Sumit Ghosh.
Adding to this, Deepak Salvi, Chingari’s COO, and co-founder commented, “We are glad to have Dekko as an official news partner with us. This partnership will change how users are going to view [news] nowadays. [Over a period] of time, on-the-go news consumption has been evolved.”
Meanwhile, Dekko in a press statement, said, “We are very excited to partner with Chingari which is continuously striving to build India’s strongest and most entertaining short-video platform. With this partnership, we aim to fill the gap for high quality, credible short-video news in the industry and reach millions of [users],”
Just recently, Chingari has also introduced a brand-new over-the-top (OTT) platform, Chingari Multiplex, enabling users access to their favorite Indian movies.
The United States – Global short-video platform TikTok has undoubtedly increased its popularity amid the pandemic, where users all over the world have taken it as a favorite past time while being cooped up at home.
Since it launched in 2016, TikTok has continually upgraded both its features and community guidelines. As everyone is on their toes to welcoming the new year, TikTok unveils new features and guidelines, prioritizing ‘safety’ and making the community in the platform more ‘inclusive’.
As a start, new tools are being rolled out to support people with photosensitive epilepsy, and those that lack the capability to see text on videos.
According to a blog post by Joshua Goodman, director of product, trust, and safety at TikTok, the team met with epilepsy advocates to share feedback on how the brand can improve its platform.
As a result of this, TikTok launched a feature in the middle of the year that warns creators when they produce videos with effects that could trigger photosensitive epilepsy. Goodman said in the near time to come, the platform will be introducing an accessibility feature that notify viewers who come across a photosensitive video the option to ‘Skip All’ future photosensitive videos.
Meanwhile, for those that lack the ability to see text on video, the platform will be rolling out a new text-to-speech feature that allows people to convert typed text to voice that plays over text as it appears in a video.
Those that create videos publicize themselves and subject themselves to some privacy risks, and TikTok has also beefed up its community guidelines to make the platform a safer place for its users.
According to Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s head of Trust & Safety, additional specifics to the guidelines were based on behavior they’ve seen on the platform as well as on feedback it’s heard from the community, and input from academics, civil society organizations, and local government bodies.
“At TikTok, safety isn’t a nice-to-have or an afterthought; it’s central to all our work, and our teams strive to be inclusive and thoughtful when developing our policies,” said Keenan.
For one, its updated guidelines incorporate feedback and language used by mental health experts to improve its policies on self-harm and suicide content and avoid normalizing self-injury behaviors. It has also put additional considerations to prohibit normalizing or glorifying dangerous weight loss behaviors.
When it comes to users managing their online presence, TikTok has bolstered its policies on bullying and harassment and the new guidelines are now more explicit about the types of content and behaviors that aren’t welcome on TikTok, including doxxing, cyberstalking, and a more extensive policy against sexual harassment.
Content promoting dares and games have also been present in the platform, and to protect the youth that is seen to be most exposed to this kind of content, the platform has improved its existing dangerous acts policy, adding a harmful activities section to its minor safety policy to reiterate that content promoting dangerous dares, games, and other acts that may jeopardize the safety of youth is not allowed.
TikTok also stands firmly against violence, both online and off. It has updated its previous dangerous individuals and organizations policy to focus more holistically on the issue of violent extremism. Its guidelines now describe in greater detail what’s considered a threat or incitement to violence and the content and behavior it prohibits.
In line with navigating challenging subjects like self-harm, TikTok, over the coming weeks starting December, will be rolling out updated resources to support people who may be struggling. Now, if someone searches for terms like ‘selfharm’ or ‘hatemyself’ they’ll see evidence-based actions they can take.
Resources were created with guidance from leading behavioral psychologists and suicide prevention experts, including Providence, Samaritans of Singapore, and Live for Tomorrow.
Singapore – As Singapore’s multi-currency mobile wallet YouTrip reaches its four-month mark in the short video platform TikTok, it shared how it maxes out the platform’s massive userbase to stay present in consumers’ minds.
YouTrip established its TikTok account in June of this year, and as of current, it has a total of 32.5k followers and has garnered 691.3k likes across its videos.
YouTrip’s service comes with a prepaid Mastercard and enables users to pay in over 150 currencies with no fees. Branded as a “travel” wallet, its TikTok videos circle lifestyle content, such as tips on how to enjoy international destinations such as Spain, a list of the “coolest” Apple shops, and how one can get a taste of travel through whipping up different versions of super grain bowls.
The brand revealed that it uses a two-pronged approach to leverage its presence in TikTok: making informative content and staying relevant to trends.
For valuable content, it adopted a strategy of adapting original blog articles that had performed well to the TikTok format. During the firm’s content planning process, it identified e-commerce shopping guides and hotel reviews as such. One of its most successful TikTok videos featured a guide to get the “Cheapest Nintendo Switch,” garnering over 119k views to date.
In terms of staying within the wave of trends, YouTrip identified that it is vital to be the first-mover in driving reactive content on trending topics, audios, or hashtags.
Hopping onto the challenges bandwagon, YouTrip took an informative spin on the challenge featuring the trending song Kings and Queens by American singer Ava Max. In such challenge, users showcased culture and traditional costumes. YouTrip took the opportunity to emphasize its branding on travel and culture, and published a version featuring real queens from around the world. The rendition garnered over two million views and 12.8k followers in two weeks.
The brand shared that by driving travel content, it also aims to strengthen its brand positioning to remain top-of-mind for when travel rebounds.
Head of Marketing Jeremy Lim said that curating meaningful content that resonates with users has been the core of YouTrip’s marketing strategies.
“Our venture into TikTok allows us to tap into our creativity to find new ways to connect with our users. We encourage brands to consider including TikTok in their marketing mix as well if they aim to establish themselves as relatable and reliable,” he said.
Chew Wee Ng, head of SEA business marketing at TikTok also commented, “TikTok is about embracing the creative, positive, and real moments that make our community so special, with solutions for businesses to connect and grow with our wonderfully expressive community.”
Ng also emphasized that with the right content strategy and a touch of authenticity, any brand can find success on the global stage with TikTok.
“YouTrip’s rapid growth on the platform is a prime example. As one of the first movers, they’ve incorporated TikTok early into their marketing mix and are now reaping its successes through a customized content strategy, collaboration with the TikTok community, and growing with a global audience,” said Ng.
Pakistan – In a press statement Friday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has revealed that it has issued instructions for the blocking of video-sharing platform TikTok over immoral and indecent content.
The Authority said the decision was made “in view of [a] number of complaints from different segments of the society.” PTA shared that prior to the final blockage, it issued a final notice to the application, giving it considerable time to comply with the instructions to develop a more proactive system of content moderation, with which the company failed to oblige to.
The Authority remains open for engagement with the company and will review its decision until the company has met the “satisfactory” mechanism to moderate “unlawful” content.
Mumbai, India – India’s short video platform Chingari and entertainment brand The Q India has formed a joint programming and marketing agreement that will enable content from the brand to be featured in the platform.
The partnership comes as Chingari expands its delivery of content to include short-form video on demand (VOD) together with games and news.
The Q India is a Hindi language channel and VOD provider delivering digital programming from social media stars and leading digital video creators with young Indian consumers as its target, mirroring that of Chingari’s main audience.
The content on the Chingari platform will be offered on an ad-supported basis.
Deepak Salvi, co-founder, and COO of the Chingari app said that India has evolved from being a consumer of traditional TV content to a creator of digital content.
“We share the ambitions of Q India to create a new and dynamic brand delivering the content that the young Indian audience is looking for on platforms that they can engage with all day every day. As we build our content offering across both [user generated content] and professionally produced content to our fast-growing audience, we are excited to add programming from Q India to the mix,” Salvi said.
Meanwhile, The Q India’s Chief Revenue Officer Krishna Menon commented, “Chingari has proven to be one of the fastest-growing apps in India driving millions of views daily across their platform. We look forward to co-marketing our brands to our respective users and continuing to deliver together great content for [young Indians]. We expect that offering Q India content across yet another major and fast-growing platform will increase our value to the brands and advertisers who we align with”
The Chingari app, which means “spark” in Hindi, was launched in 2018 and saw its user base surge when TikTok was banned in the country earlier in June.
Manila, Philippines – With COVID-19 forcing everyone to stay home, more and more people are turning to online platforms for information, connection, and entertainment. And no platform has managed to entertain quite like TikTok.
TikTok has been taking 2020 by storm, with 315 million installs across iOS and Android in Q1. To date, the video-sharing app has been installed in devices 800 million times and was touted as the most downloaded app earlier this year. It now has 2 billion downloads overall, doubling its total from 15 months ago.
Philippine-based PR agency, M2.0 Communications, recently hosted a webinar to talk about the growth attributions of TikTok particularly in the Philippines, and discover more about the social app.
“Our mission has always been to inspire creativity and bring joy. We want to help people stay connected, stay informed, stay entertained, It’s also about inspiring each other.”
John Castro, Community Operations Manager of TikTok Philippines
Another reason for TikTok’s mass appeal is it is designed for the local user. The app is available in over 150 markets and supports 75 languages.
What makes TikTok tick?
According to Castro, TikTok’s lifeline is its users, who are mostly Gen Z. This generation is a digital-first generation, with 98 percent owning smartphones. They also spend a lot of time on the internet: averaging 10 hours a day online, streaming at least one hour of video per day, and consuming an average of 68 contents per day.
While Gen Z is certainly a big driver of the app’s popularity, other generations are joining in on the fun as well, resulting in a vibrant and engaged community. And it is that community that sets TikTok apart according to Castro.
“We have dancers, chefs, cooks,” said Castro on the variety of users on the platform all expressing their individual truths. “It’s not just about the dance trends, it’s more about the creators, the users, and the community,” he said.
John Castro, Community Operations Manager of TikTok Philippines (pictured left) and Laureen Uy, Lifestyle Influencer in the Philippines (pictured right)
New content for the new normal
A big trend in content creation brought on by COVID-19 is the shift towards authentic content. And this is where TikTok shines because it is about users expressing their individual truths, in whatever way they choose.
Before the pandemic, lifestyle influencer Laureen Uy posted a lot of travel content. Now, her content has been restricted to things she can do in her own home, forcing her to think of new ways to present her content. “As a content creator, I still want to keep my creativity going even at home,” she said.
As someone new to the platform, she was surprised by the amount of learning on TikTok, inspiring her to also produce informational content. That educational aspect of the short-form video platform is something that TikTok has actively pursued, adding the option for longer-form content so its creators can better inform their audiences.
Ultimately, TikTok’s success will depend on its users. And while the growing user base of the platform will undoubtedly attract marketers, Castro emphasizes the importance of understanding what works on TikTok. “If you’re coming into TikTok thinking you can do the same thing you can do on other platforms, you’re probably going to be mediocre,” he said.
For Uy, it’s about diversifying content for different social media channels. “If my content on Instagram is more fashion and lifestyle focused, my content on TikTok would be focused on fun and infotainment,” she said.
Perhaps the best way for brands to run campaigns on TikTok is through the creators. After all, it is a community-driven platform. It will be an exercise of experimentation and creativity, much like the environment of the TikTok community itself.
The Rise of TikTok – Webinar Highlights
“On TikTok, you’ll see different types of challenges and videos you might not see on other platforms,” said Castro. “We want you guys to express your creativity. It can be in the weirdest way possible. We embrace weird, and we want you guys to do that on TikTok.”, he added.
The presentations and the full webinar video can be accessed here.
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