Musical.ly and Tik Tok Mobile Studio Applications Will Soon Merge into New Applications

Musical.ly, a mobile studio application from the United States, will merge with a similar application from China, Tik Tok, after it was fully acquired by ByteDance, Tik Tok's parent company, at the end of last year. The merger is expected to boost more mainstream users from generation Z to become creators, especially from Indonesia as the largest market in Southeast Asia.

Generation Z is the age group starting from the year of birth 1996-2010. It is estimated that the number in Indonesia reaches 68 million or about 29 percent of the total population. Meanwhile, globally, it reaches 2,5 billion or 34 percent of the total world population.

"It will be a new application, now it is in process. The plan this year will be announced," explained Country Manager of Tik Tok and Musical.ly Teguh Wicaksono, last week (10/2).

Through this merger, in the future the company will focus more on developing features with artificial intelligence (AI) technology by mixing localization elements according to each country.

ByteDance is said to have specialization in this field so that it is expected to be a strong element of differentiation with similar applications. The application of AI technology can also be seen in the application flagship ByteDance is quite popular in China, namely Toutiao.

The new platform is expected to be easier to use and more efficient to accommodate user needs in creating content. Moreover, continued Teguh, the company's focus at this time is to increase users, not yet fixated on monetization.

To attract new users, it embraces various business partnerships with local and global companies, such as Ismaya Live, RCTI, Warner Music Indonesia, Universal Indonesia, Sony Music Indonesia, Indosat Ooredoo, Apple Music, Disney, Billboard, and others.

The development of Musical.ly and Tik Tok

Musical.ly itself was present in 2015, while Tik Tok was present last year. Teguh claims, these two applications grow rapidly organically every year. It can be seen from the active users and the community that is formed by itself, thus making Indonesia the largest market in Asean for these two applications.

Musical.ly was revealed to have succeeded in creating new talents in the fields of music, comedy, and fashion. Meanwhile, Tik Tok fulfills the needs of creators with interactive technology and more advanced special effects, such as the Gaga Dance feature, effects hairdryer, 3D stickers and other digital features.

"We see that in the future there will be many things that can be done together with ByteDance, so we agreed [to be acquired]. win-win solutions. Musical.ly already has a large user base in the global market, while Tik Tok has a large user base in China."

Globally, both Musical.ly and Tik Tok have been downloaded more than 500 million times. Daily video viewers reach 10 billion, as well as 150 million MAU users worldwide with the largest contributor countries being the United States and the United Kingdom. It is not explained specifically how much contribution from Indonesia globally.