The Family Office, on behalf of its clients, was among the early investors in ByteDance, the rapidly growing Chinese technology company that owns TikTok.
The Journey to the Top
TikTok was a relative newcomer in November 2016, focused on video content. Its popularity grew rapidly worldwide, climbing from the seventh position in 2020 to the top position in 2021. According to Cloudflare, TikTok first reached the top position on February 17, 2021. This recurred on several days in March and May. But from August 10, 2021 through Black Friday (November 26), TikTok truly “took over the internet” on most days, showing a clear public preference for video content[2].
Social Media and the Pandemic
Many of the early simple social media platforms that evolved in the mid-1990s, like GeoCities and Classmates.com, were confined to computers with wired Internet access. The initial public reception was lukewarm as broadband Internet was not widely available. Their popularity began to surge as smartphones became available worldwide. Social media platforms took the world by storm with the introduction of 3G, which allowed sharing more data-intensive content like videos on smartphones. As the COVID-19 pandemic confined people to their homes, the number of social media users surged worldwide as people sought to restore a sense of connection. The subsequent easing of COVID-19 restrictions had a benign effect on the popularity of social sites. Below are the most popular social medial domains in 2020 and 2021.
2021
1. TikTok.com
2. Google.com
3. Facebook.com
4. Microsoft.com
5. Apple.com
6. Amazon.com
7. Netflix.com
8. YouTube.com
9. Twitter.com
10. WhatsApp.com
2020
1. Google.com
2. Facebook.com
3. Microsoft.com
4. Apple.com
5. Netflix.com
6. Amazon.com
7. TikTok.com
8. YouTube.com
9. Instagram.com
10. Twitter.com
A Track-Record of Successful Investments
With great insights into private markets gained from international presence and partnerships with top-tier asset managers, The Family Office provides exclusive investment opportunities worldwide to help clients preserve and grow their wealth through diversified portfolios.
[1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/popular-domains-year-in-review-2021/
[2]https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-loses-top-domain-spot-to-tiktok/431026/#close