In this two-part series we explore the international phenomenon and emerging social media platform: TikTok. From the failing Shanghai tech company that created Musical.ly to ByteDance's $1b acquisition in 2017, we explore how TikTok became the highest-valued startup to date now totalling over $75b. In part 1 we'll break down the app and its powerful machine learning technology, and how its Chinese roots are critical to understanding the future of the company.

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• Joan Summers: Twitter, Instagram.
• Matthew Lawson: Twitter, Instagram.

Sources:

• Meet the Head of TikTok, a 35-Year-Old Who Makes Employees Do Push-Ups if Their Videos Don't Get Enough Likes - Money, Julia Glum (2019)
• How a failed education startup turned into Musical.ly, the most popular app you've probably never heard of - Business Insider, Biz Carson (2016)
• Chinese Tech Firms Forced to Choose Market: Home or Everywhere Else - NYT, Paul Mozur
• My conversation with Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao - Technode, 2017
• Musical.ly, a Chinese App Big in the U.S., Sells for $1 Billion (Paul Mozur) - NYT, 2017
• Who's Too Young for an App? Musical.ly Tests the Limits - NYT, John Herrman, 2016
• The popular Musical.ly app has been rebranded as TikTok - The Verge, Dami Lee. (2018)
• These Teens Are Making Thousands a Month With Karaoke App Musical.ly - Money, Gabriela Fernandez
• AI In China: How Buzzfeed Rival ByteDance Uses Machine Learning To Revolutionize The News - Forbes, Bernard Marr
• A Look at Toutiao: China's Artificial Intelligence Powered News Platform - Wei Chun Chew, Medium
• The Hidden Forces Behind Toutiao: China's Content King - Ycombination, Anu Hariharan (2017
• The History of TikTok (TeenVogue)

• How TikTok is Rewriting the World (NewYorkTimes)
• TikTok, Explained (Vox)
• How TikTok Holds Our Attention (NewYorker)
• 32 Biggest Stars on TikTok (Business Insider)
• How 7 Brands are Using TikTok (HugSpot)
• TikTok and Activism (BBC)
• Meet the Head of TikTok (Money.com)
• How A Failed Startup Became Musical.ly (Business Insider)
• Chinese Tech Firms Forced to Choose Market (NewYorkTimes)
• My conversation with Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao (Technode)
• Musical.ly, a Chinese App Big in the U.S., Sells for $1 Billion (NewYorkTimes)
• Who's Too Young for an App? Musical.ly Tests the Limits (NewYorkTimes)
• The popular Musical.ly app has been rebranded as TikTok (The Verge)
• These Teens Are Making Thousands a Month With Karaoke App Musical.ly (Money.com)
• AI In China: How Buzzfeed Rival ByteDance Uses Machine Learning To Revolutionize The News (Forbes)
• How TikTok Took Over Music (Rolling Stone)
• Record Labels Demand More Money for Songs on TikTok App (Bloomberg)
• U.S. Army Looking Into National Security Concerns Over TikTok After Using It to Recruit Troops (Gizmodo)
• U.S. opens national security investigation into TikTok (Reuters)
• TikTok national security inquiry (CNBC)
• US investigating TikTok owner ByteDance (South China Morning Post)
• Before Mark Zuckerberg Tried To Kill TikTok (BuzzFeedNews)
• TikTok has moved into Facebook's backyard (CNBC)