How TikTok is capitalising on its own 15 seconds of fame: Business Extra

ByteDance's Shant Oknayan says TikTok will always be about creating joyful content

"We want to inspire creativity and create joy."

That's what it's all about at TikTok, according to Shant Oknayan, a general manager for the region at the social media platform's parent company ByteDance.

As the wildly popular short-form video sharing app grows, Mr Oknayan tells The National it has no plans to grow up. The joyful content its users generate is big business for advertisers.

He says influencers have a major role to play for companies looking to sell products, and audiences are growing rapidly here in the region. Top TikTok influencers in the GCC increased their follower count by an average of 65 per cent between February and August 2020, according to data analytics company Anavizio.

Mr Oknayan also answers questions about how the platform is moving on from lockdown, how TikTok differentiates itself from other social media companies and how user privacy and disinformation is addressed.

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