Study of a Video-sharing Platform: The Global Rise of TikTok

TikTok, also called Douyin in China, has been the fastest growing social media platform around the world. To understand why TikTok became so successful, this thesis focuses on studying the strategic choices of TikTok. First, this thesis analyzes how TikTok was born and then expanded, mainly in the Chinese and the U.S. market, its two largest markets. Then it introduces the platform strategies and competitive strategies of TikTok and summarizes TikTok’s existing business models. This thesis also examines the threats and opportunities that TikTok is facing and how TikTok responds to them. Finally, this thesis suggests that the case of TikTok as a Chinese company that has successfully dominated overseas markets can be instructive to other companies seeking to expand into foreign contexts.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Wu, Jingyi

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cusumano, Michael A.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright MIT

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139394

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/139394