Something is currently happening on this platform, here are young people. This is clear when web stars like Rezo and Julien Bam, but also Lena Meyer-Landrut and Heidi Klum present themselves on a new platform, as well as brands like McDonald's, Nike and even the Tagesschau.
We're talking about TikTok, a video app that is particularly popular with children and teenagers, no matter how questionable revelations around the platform should be. The main content of the app from the Chinese company ByteDance is clips up to 15 or 60 seconds long, which are often accompanied by music. There are also live streams in the style of the streaming portals Twitch and YouNow.
A lot on TikTok is comedy and entertainment, it's about first love or friendship. Politics, on the other hand, is much less present than on Facebook or Twitter - which is also due to TikTok's moderation rules. To do this, you will repeatedly come across LipSync clips on the platform, i.e. videos in which users move their lips in sync with songs or repeat film dialogues. This is the legacy of the previous platform: TikTok merged with the LipSync app Musical.ly in 2018, which had been bought by ByteDance the previous year.
- Growing pains - TikTok in puberty: Read more about the success and problems of TikTok at SPIEGEL +.
One of the more popular German video makers on TikTok is a user whose channel is called "@papa_basti_und_familie". The 41-year-old is a teacher at a primary school in Lower Saxony - and often encounters users the age of his students on TikTok. His channel now has around 215,000 followers.
SPIEGEL: Basti, how did you end up on TikTok?
Basti: I'm a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). When it took place in May, I remembered that there was this LipSync app called Musical.ly that I wanted to sing a few songs with. My fourth graders then informed me that the app is now called TikTok. Then I actually made ESC videos with it, if not particularly good ones.
SPIEGEL: Half a year has now passed and there are more than 1,300 videos online on your TikTok account, especially good mood clips.
Basti: I got stuck, yes. Watched videos from other TikTokers and then felt like doing more than just LipSync. For me, the app is really just a pastime.
SPIEGEL: Do you see yourself as an influencer?
Basti: For heaven's sake, no.
SPIEGEL: You have 215,000 followers on TikTok.
Basti: If I had such numbers on YouTube or Instagram, that would be something. I wouldn't compare TikTok to other, older social media apps. It is still relatively easy to get high followers here. But: I had to smile recently when the TV show "The Voice" mentioned that the video of a band had gone viral, with a million hits or something. I already have several TikTok videos with millions of views.
SPIEGEL: How much concept is behind your uploads?
Basti: I don't have time to produce videos perfectly. Almost everything happens spontaneously. In the meantime I upload my videos at certain times: I was advised to do this between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. because then the students come out of school. And from 6 p.m. they would rather deal with series and films, it said.
SPIEGEL: TikTok can be used officially from the age of 13. How old are your followers?
Basti: A considerable number is under 13. And some children on TikTok are only six to ten. These are children who are not yet on other platforms. Instagram and Facebook only know from hearsay, they don't have everything. But in apps they use, they get TikTok advertising played out - I know that from my children.
SPIEGEL: Do you think it's okay when younger children are on TikTok?
Basti: The official age limit already makes sense. If my child were on TikTok, I would also create an account as a parent so that I could have a little overview of what is being published there or who, for example, comments on what under the videos.
SPIEGEL: Online bullying or cybergrooming is a problem on many platforms, including YouTube. Is there anything else you are particularly concerned about about TikTok?
Basti: I think that some TikToker rip off. When someone streams live, viewers can give them virtual gifts.
SPIEGEL: That you pay with virtual coins that you have to buy with real money beforehand. A gift costs the equivalent of 50 euros, recently even 80.
Basti: Sometimes the descriptions of streams already state what the streamers do for this or that gift: for example, like or comment on your own videos or record a duet video with you. Or they give you their supposedly private phone number. Or there is some dubious raffle for which you buy the lots with the gifts.
SPIEGEL: Sometimes, after sending an expensive gift, people write on some wall, board, or t-shirt. Who is it worth?
Basti: These are grubby offers, I think they particularly appeal to young people. This way, children get their money out of their pockets or their parents' money. And TikTok allows that because it earns a lot of money on the system.
SPIEGEL: On December 20, TikTok changed its rules so that from now on, only users who are at least 18 years old can send or receive virtual gifts. An overdue decision?
Basti: It's a start, but a drop in the bucket. TikTok does not want to completely shut down the system. Maybe one day there will be TikTok prepaid cards in the store, as with other online currencies. The parents then buy these cards, but the children spend the money.
SPIEGEL: Have you ever gone live yourself?
Basti: I tried the function, but found it rather stupid. In the afternoon, my audience consisted almost entirely of children who wanted to play games on the livestream. I prefer to exchange ideas with other people. This is only possible in the stream, if at all, in the evening.
SPIEGEL: At TikTok - in addition to the considerable influence of moderators, as research by Netzpolitik.org has shown - the algorithm decides which content is played to whom. So you can go viral without any noteworthy number of followers, but you can hardly succeed even with many followers. Do you now have a feeling for how your uploads will be received?
Basti: The algorithm is not clear. For me it remains inexplicable what is successful and what is not. Two of my most watched videos were waste products. Once I filmed how I tried unsuccessfully to let the air out of my pool. Nine million views.
And once I took a boat trip in Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen, with a King Kong in the picture. Almost 25 million views, mostly from India and Indonesia. Other, much better videos have much smaller reach.
But once I started a video that I think is really good - with 29 million views. I can be seen as a parking aid.
SPIEGEL: Do you find it exciting when a video goes viral?
Basti: It feels strange when your video is suddenly viewed in Indonesia. But since you get a lot of positive feedback on TikTok, that's also good for self-esteem. It's like a warm rain you're exposed to.
SPIEGEL: Are you treated differently on TikTok because you identify yourself as a teacher in some videos?
Basti: I am sometimes screened. And I often hear that there is hate and bullying at TikTok, but I don't care much about it. Yes, maybe because I'm a teacher - or maybe because I'm just older.
SPIEGEL: Do your own students actually know your channel?
Basti: So far not too many have noticed that I am making TikTok videos. And if so, then the older ones. They think it's cool, I hope and hope, but don't necessarily speak to me about it. If anything, I hear something like "Hey, I saw you on TikTok". I would like to thank you for this and then quickly direct the conversation to another topic.
SPIEGEL: Would you say your TikTok followers learn a lot about you as a person?
Basti: Whoever follows me knows that I am a family man and which profession I have. And I think he gets the impression that I have a happy family life. But whether that corresponds to reality? He doesn't know that. And of course everything is filtered a little bit positively, I'm not posting without meaning and reason.
SPIEGEL: Your family sometimes appears in your clips: Does that make your videos more successful?
Basti: It's an advantage. Young people also want to see young people. Would the channel be more about my children than me - who knows, maybe people would find that even better?
SPIEGEL: Is there a number of followers you dream of?
Basti: If I were 20 now and would look good, I would have certain big goals on TikTok. But so I'm just excited every day to see what happens.
