96 Fun Facts About TikTok

Which Instagram feature did Facebook launch in August 2020 to lure TikTok's users?

Reels rolled out across the US in August 2020 while TikTok faced scrutiny in Washington over its Chinese ownership, after Facebook first tested it in Brazil.

TikTok launched outside China in 2017, months after Twitter shut down which looping short-video app?

Vine let people share six-second looping clips, but Twitter moved to close it in October 2016 as its users and stars drifted to rival apps such as Instagram and YouTube.

The name of TikTok's separate Chinese app translates literally into English as what?

Shaking Sound: Douyin must follow China's censorship rules, so its search blocks some political terms.

Which lip-syncing app was merged into TikTok in 2018, with its accounts folded into the same app?

Musical.ly was its founders' desperate pivot from a failed education app; ByteDance bought it in November 2017 and moved its users onto TikTok in August 2018.

Which McDonald's character's birthday shake set off a 2023 TikTok trend of mock horror videos?

Grimace's purple birthday shake had TikTokers filming a sip and then playing dead, and McDonald's played along with a post of Grimace pretending not to see the trend.

Who founded TikTok's parent company in 2012?

Zhang Yiming co-founded ByteDance in Beijing in 2012 and in 2021 stepped aside as chief executive, handing the job to fellow co-founder Liang Rubo.

Which Encanto song became a TikTok favorite and topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022?

We Don't Talk About Bruno became only the second Hot 100 No. 1 from a Disney animated film, yet Disney had already submitted 'Dos Oruguitas' for the Oscars.

Which Disney executive, fresh from launching Disney+, briefly became TikTok's chief executive in 2020?

Kevin Mayer, who had launched Disney+ as Disney's streaming chief, started as TikTok CEO on June 1, 2020 and quit that August as Washington moved to force a sale of the app.

Who became TikTok's chief executive in 2021?

Shou Zi Chew took over in 2021 and in March 2023 first testified before Congress, facing lawmakers pushing to ban the app over its Chinese ownership.

Before taking over TikTok in 2021, its chief executive was finance chief at which phone maker?

Xiaomi hired him as finance chief in 2015, but his tie to TikTok's owner went back to 2013, when he led a group of ByteDance's earliest investors.

What is TikTok's main recommendation feed called?

The For You page picks clips from what you watch and engage with; TikTok says follower count isn't a direct factor, so a brand-new account's video can still land there.

Which TikTok feature lets you film your own video side by side with someone else's?

Duet sets your clip beside the original in split screen, and in 2021 TikTok stopped people duetting with videos posted by under-16s to protect younger teens.

Which items did people stack into a pyramid and try to climb for a 2021 TikTok challenge?

Milk crates: TikTok deleted search results for the challenge, saying it prohibits content that promotes or glorifies dangerous acts.

Whom did Charli D'Amelio overtake in March 2020 to become TikTok's most-followed user?

Loren Gray had held the top spot since German twins Lisa and Lena deleted their account in 2019; Charli D'Amelio passed her on 25 March 2020 with 41.4 million followers.

Who overtook Charli D'Amelio in June 2022 to become TikTok's most-followed creator?

Khaby Lame, a Senegal-born creator raised in Italy who had lost his factory job in 2020, passed Charli D'Amelio in June 2022 with wordless videos mocking overcomplicated life hacks.

Which creator's 2019 broomstick illusion did Guinness World Records name TikTok's most-viewed video in 2022?

Zach King used mirrors to make it look as if he was flying, and the clip ends by revealing the trick.

Whose August 2020 head-bobbing lip-sync became TikTok's most-liked video?

Bella Poarch's clip made her famous, and in May 2021 she signed with Warner Records and released her debut single.

Jenna Ortega's Wednesday dance became a TikTok trend set to a sped-up version of which Lady Gaga song?

Bloody Mary wasn't in the show, whose scene used The Cramps' 'Goo Goo Muck', but the TikTok edits sent Gaga's 2011 album track onto the Hot 100 in 2023.

Which ByteDance video-editing app went offline for US users alongside TikTok in January 2025?

CapCut went dark on 18 January 2025 along with Lemon8 and Marvel Snap, because the ban law covered apps tied to TikTok's owner, ByteDance.

Which app launched a TikTok-style feed in 2020 by promising to share $1 million a day among viral creators?

Snapchat's Spotlight shared $1 million a day to compete with TikTok, but by 2021 creators said they were leaving the feature as those payments dried up.

Which chain put a drink called The Charli on its menu in September 2020?

Dunkin' launched 'The Charli', a cold brew with whole milk and three pumps of caramel swirl, in September 2020; it was simply her regular order with her name on the menu board.

Charli D'Amelio and her mother competed against each other in 2022 on which show?

On Dancing with the Stars season 31 in 2022, Charli won with Mark Ballas while her mother Heidi, partnered with Artem Chigvintsev, was eliminated earlier in the season.

TikTok star Addison Rae made her film debut in a Netflix remake of which 1999 teen comedy?

He's All That (2021) gender-flipped She's All That, giving Addison Rae the makeover-artist role Freddie Prinze Jr. played in 1999, opposite Tanner Buchanan.

How much did Forbes say Addison Rae, its top-earning TikTok star of 2020, made that year?

$5 million: Forbes put Addison Rae just ahead of Charli D'Amelio, who had far more followers but made an estimated $4 million.

The Hype House, a collective of TikTok creators, was set up in December 2019 in which city?

The Hype House began in a Los Angeles mansion in December 2019, but Charli and Dixie D'Amelio, original members, had formally left the group by August 2020.

The Renegade, TikTok's defining 2020 dance, was choreographed by which 14-year-old?

Jalaiah Harmon, a 14-year-old from Georgia, created the Renegade in September 2019 and only got credit after a February 2020 New York Times story, then performed it at the NBA All-Star Game.

Which Fleetwood Mac song re-charted after a 2020 video of a man skateboarding with a juice bottle?

Dreams: the clip moved the band's own drummer, Mick Fleetwood, to film his version of it for TikTok.

After his skateboarding video went viral in 2020, what did Ocean Spray give Nathan Apodaca?

Ocean Spray gave Nathan Apodaca a new pickup truck, cranberry red and stocked with Cran-Raspberry juice, because his own truck had broken down, which is why he was skateboarding to work.

Which sea shanty topped the 2021 UK singles chart after a Scottish singer's TikTok version?

Wellerman: when Nathan Evans sang it on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway in March 2021, Queen's Brian May joined in with a recorded guitar solo.

Nathan Evans, whose shanty cover set off the sea-shanty craze, had which day job when he recorded it?

Nathan Evans was a postal worker when his TikTok shanty took off, and he quit the job after signing with Universal's Polydor Records in January 2021.

Which Pixar film inspired a crowdsourced, fan-written stage show streamed on New Year's Day 2021?

Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, pieced together from creators' songs, debuted online on New Year's Day 2021 and sold more than $1 million in tickets, partly for The Actors Fund.

The viral song 'It's Corn' was built from an interview with a seven-year-old on which web series?

Recess Therapy: the song's makers set Tariq up to receive his own share of the royalties from 'It's Corn'.

Which actor and musician shared an acoustic cover of the song 'It's Corn' in September 2022?

Kevin Bacon had already been sharing acoustic covers of pop hits that he sang to his pet goats.

Which song's 'Yeehaw Challenge' on TikTok launched it toward a record-breaking run at number one?

Lil Nas X bought the beat for just $30 on BeatStars, and TikTok's Yeehaw Challenge helped carry 'Old Town Road' to a then-record 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019.

Doja Cat's TikTok hit 'Say So' only reached number one after a remix featuring which rapper?

Nicki Minaj: during a Twitter Q&A promoting the remix, she dropped hints that set off rumours she was pregnant.

The 2020 remix that took Megan Thee Stallion's TikTok smash 'Savage' to number one featured which artist?

Beyonce joined the remix, which gave Megan Thee Stallion her first No. 1 in May 2020, and both gave their proceeds to Bread of Life, a food charity in their hometown of Houston.

'Beggin'', the 2021 TikTok hit covered by Maneskin, was first released in 1967 by which group?

The Four Seasons released 'Beggin'' in 1967; Måneskin's 2017 cover only took off after the band won Eurovision in May 2021, then spread on TikTok.

Which Madeline Miller novel became a bestseller a decade after publication thanks to BookTok?

The Song of Achilles, published in 2011, returned to bestseller lists in 2021 after BookTok videos of readers sobbing over its ending spread across the app.

Which country banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps in June 2020?

India banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps on 29 June 2020, citing sovereignty and security, after a deadly clash with Chinese troops along the Himalayan border.

Which US state was the first to pass a law banning TikTok on all personal devices within its borders?

Montana's lawmakers passed the ban on 14 April 2023, but a federal judge blocked it as unconstitutional a month before it was due to take effect.

In September 2020 TikTok's parent confirmed a deal for which US company to provide its cloud hosting?

Oracle beat Microsoft's rival bid in 2020 to become TikTok's US 'trusted technology partner', and it later hosted American users' data under Project Texas.

Which carmakers' vehicles did a 2022 TikTok trend show thieves how to start with a USB cable?

Kia and Hyundai: many of their US models with steel keys lacked engine immobilizers, so thieves could force the ignition.

TikTok's Supreme Court challenge to the 2024 divest-or-ban law is known as TikTok, Inc. v. what?

Garland: the ruling let the ban take effect, so TikTok went dark for US users late on 18 January 2025, hours before the deadline.

As a US TikTok ban loomed in January 2025, self-described 'TikTok refugees' flocked to which Chinese app?

RedNote: Americans fleeing the ban on one Chinese app piled into another, a heavily censored Instagram-like platform, sending it to the top of Apple's free-app chart.

In June 2020 TikTok users claimed credit for reserving tickets they never used at a Trump rally in which city?

Tulsa's 20 June 2020 rally drew only about 6,000 people to a 19,000-seat arena, after the campaign had said more than a million people wanted tickets.

Which TikTok feature lets you clip a scene from another user's video into yours?

Stitch clips a scene from someone else's video into your own, and in 2021 TikTok barred stitching videos created by under-16s.

Which singer's debut single 'Tik Tok' led the Hot 100 for nine weeks, long before the app existed?

Kesha co-wrote the song, and it went on to be the best-selling single worldwide in 2010, with 12.8 million digital copies sold that year.

Which language app announced in a 2025 TikTok stunt that its mascot had been killed by a Cybertruck?

Duolingo then asked users to earn 50 billion experience points between them to resurrect Duo, its green owl, and posted a video of his return once they had.

TikTok's 2021 baked pasta craze, begun by a Finnish blogger, pairs cherry tomatoes with which cheese?

Feta ran short in Finnish grocery stores once the recipe took off. Blogger Jenni Häyrinen first posted it in 2019, two years before TikTok turned it into a worldwide craze.

Which word did creator Jools Lebron's 2024 TikTok videos make Dictionary.com's Word of the Year?

Demure took off after her August 2024 video about how to behave at work drew millions of views. Brands and celebrities were soon borrowing the word in their own posts.

A 2023 TikTok trend had women asking men how often they think about which ancient civilization?

The Roman Empire question grew out of an Instagram post by a Swedish reenactor known online as Gaius Flavius. Women then filmed their boyfriends and husbands answering.

Which US president signed the law ordering TikTok's Chinese owner to sell the app or see it banned?

Joe Biden signed it on April 24, 2024. Donald Trump, who had tried to force a sale of TikTok in 2020, delayed its enforcement by executive order on his first day back in office.

Which country's 2024 law bars under-16s from holding accounts on TikTok and other social platforms?

Australia's ban took effect on 10 December 2025. Companies that fail to keep under-16s off face fines of up to A$49.5 million, with no penalty for the children or their parents.

Which brand, long known for steel thermos flasks, saw its Quencher tumbler become a TikTok craze?

Stanley dates to 1913, when William Stanley Jr. invented the all-steel vacuum bottle. After influencers championed the Quencher, the brand shifted its marketing to sell primarily to women.

The whipped coffee that swept TikTok in March 2020 takes its name from which Korean sugar candy?

Dalgona rarely goes into the drink: the name comes from a likeness in taste and looks. It is credited to South Korean actor Jung Il-woo, who ordered the whipped coffee in Macau on a TV show in January 2020.

Which slang word for charm, spread by Kai Cenat and TikTok, was Oxford's 2023 Word of the Year?

Rizz is likely short for charisma. It spread further in June 2023 when actor Tom Holland told an interviewer he had only a limited supply and relied on the long game instead.

TikTok's parent company began in a rented apartment in 2012 in which Chinese city?

Beijing's Zhongguancun tech district housed that first apartment office. By 2019 the headquarters had a room where cybersecurity police were stationed to flag illegal content on the spot.

The TikTok chief executive who testified to the US Congress in March 2023 was born in which country?

Singapore is also where he did national service in the armed forces, before leaving to study at University College London and later at Harvard Business School.

Which software giant tried in 2020 to buy TikTok's US operations, only for its owner to say no?

Microsoft's bid ended in September 2020 when ByteDance refused to hand over TikTok's algorithm, a sale its executives expected the Chinese government to oppose.

Which app, first released in China in September 2016, is the mainland Chinese version of TikTok?

Douyin was first called A.me. It looks much like TikTok and shares an owner, but the two platforms operate separately.

Which other Chinese app was targeted alongside TikTok by a Trump executive order in August 2020?

WeChat, owned by Tencent, drew a matching order on the same day. Courts blocked both orders, and the next administration revoked them.

Which record company pulled its songs, Taylor Swift's included, from TikTok in a 2024 pay dispute?

Universal Music Group saw its catalog muted or removed on February 1, 2024, after licensing negotiations failed. The two sides reached an agreement that May and the music was restored.

For a 2022 TikTok trend, groups of teenage boys wore suits to cinemas to see which film?

Minions: The Rise of Gru drew so many suited fans, dressed like the villain Gru, that several UK cinemas banned groups of young men in formal wear after rowdy screenings.

In 2021 Tessica Brown went viral on TikTok after replacing her usual hairspray with which adhesive?

Gorilla Glue spray left her hair stuck to her scalp for a month before she asked for help. A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon finally freed it, without charge, in an operation lasting hours.

For the 'devious licks' TikTok trend of 2021, students posted videos of themselves doing what?

Stealing school property, mostly from bathrooms, was the point: soap dispensers were a favorite prize. TikTok banned the trend within two weeks, and several students were arrested.

Which workplace buzzword, spread by a viral 2022 TikTok video, means doing only what a job requires?

Quiet quitting involves no resignation at all: the employee stays and simply stops going beyond the job description. Gallup found that year that about half the US workforce fit the label.

TikTok became the shirt sponsor in 2021 of which Welsh football club owned by two Hollywood actors?

Wrexham wore the TikTok logo until 2023, when the club returned to the Football League and United Airlines took over the shirt. The owners are Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

Which It Ends with Us author saw her popularity surge in 2021 thanks to TikTok's book community?

Colleen Hoover self-published her first novel in 2012. The attention from TikTok readers sent her 2016 book to number one on the New York Times list in January 2022.

Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear won a Grammy for songs written on TikTok about which TV drama?

Bridgerton inspired the first Grammy-winning album developed on TikTok, shaped by viewer feedback in live sessions. Netflix later sued the pair over a staged concert, then dropped the suit.

Dubai chocolate, a 2024 TikTok craze, pairs shredded filo pastry with a cream of which nut?

Pistachio and tahini cream goes in with the pastry, a filling borrowed from the Arab dessert knafeh. The bar was created in Dubai in 2021 and went on sale there a year later, well before TikTok found it.

Which cocktail did House of the Dragon's Emma D'Arcy turn into a TikTok obsession in October 2022?

Negroni sbagliato means a mistaken negroni: sparkling wine stands in for the gin. D'Arcy named it as a favorite drink in a promotional interview, and thousands of TikTok videos reused the audio.

RushTok took off in 2021 with TikTok videos of sorority recruitment at which Southern university?

Alabama's hopefuls posted their outfits of the day, the hashtag drew billions of views, and a documentary about the craze, Bama Rush, followed in 2023.

TikTok's most-followed creator from June 2022, who had lost a factory job, was born in which country?

Senegal was home for only a year before his family moved to Italy. He began silently mocking overcomplicated life hacks after being laid off near Turin in March 2020.

The D'Amelio Show, a reality series about a TikTok-famous family, premiered on which streamer?

Hulu ran the series for three seasons from September 2021 before cancelling it in June 2024. Outside the United States it streamed on Disney+.

Which TikTok sister app, likened to Pinterest and Instagram, shot up US download charts in 2023?

Lemon8 launched in Japan in 2020 and reached American app stores in February 2023, just as lawmakers were scrutinizing its owner over TikTok.

What name did TikTok give its plan to keep American users' data on servers inside the United States?

Project Texas was TikTok's answer to fears of access from China, though a former employee said in 2023 that it did not go far enough. Its European counterpart is Project Clover.

Which term describes coded words like 'unalive' that TikTok users adopt to dodge moderation?

Algospeak swaps flagged words for stand-ins, so 'unalive' means dead or killed. The filters being dodged may be real or only imagined by the people posting.

TikTok Now, a 2022 feature snapping the front and back cameras at once, copied which French app?

BeReal, released in 2020, asks for a post showing what you are doing at that moment, shot on both cameras. TikTok's version of the idea arrived in September 2022.

Which TikTok rival did YouTube launch in 2020, at first limiting videos to 60 seconds?

Shorts began as a small beta in September 2020, reached the United States in March 2021 and went global that July. The 60-second cap lasted until 2024.

What does TikTok call the virtual currency that viewers buy with real money to send gifts to creators?

Coins pay for virtual gifts that creators can later exchange for money. TikTok has been criticized for letting children buy them.

Bryce Hall and Josh Richards were founding members of which TikTok collective formed in 2020?

Sway House was set up by a talent company so that its influencers could live together and film, and it was best known for its rivalry with the Hype House.

Which rival video app made TikTok star Josh Richards its chief strategy officer over data worries?

Triller gained prominence in 2020 as TikTok faced bans, and that July it sued TikTok's parent company, claiming its video-editing patents had been infringed.

Brittany Broski became a 2019 TikTok meme for her changing expressions on first tasting which drink?

Kombucha, in a cream soda flavor, also cost her a job at a bank: her boss decided that her viral fame put the company at risk.

Francis Bourgeois found TikTok fame filming his delighted reactions, through a fisheye lens, to what?

Trains are the passion of the English trainspotter, whose real name is Luke Nicolson. In one clip he waves at a driver and then falls out of his chair.

Which singer went from posting lockdown covers on TikTok to second place for the UK at Eurovision 2022?

Sam Ryder scored 466 points with Space Man, the highest total ever for a UK entry, and won the jury vote.

Which Hype House co-founder, credited with popularizing e-boy fashion, went on to make pop-punk music?

Chase Hudson performs as Huddy, shortened from LilHuddy. He started the collective with Thomas Petrou, Daisy Keech and other creators.

Emily Mariko's 2021 TikTok hit reheated leftover rice under a melting ice cube with which fish?

Salmon is mashed into the rice, and the ice cube steams the bowl in the microwave. Soy sauce, Kewpie mayonnaise, kimchi and nori finish it off.

Which aesthetic of idealized rural life, baking and all, boomed on TikTok in the 2020 lockdowns?

Cottagecore fans filmed themselves baking bread and bathing in forests while quarantined. On the blogging site Tumblr, posts on the theme rose 150% between March and May 2020.

A 2007 commercial's 'Little Lad', revived as a 2021 TikTok dance trend, was selling which candy?

Starburst's Berries and Creme commercial had a man in period costume break into a song and dance about the flavor. TikTok users revived the audio and the routine in late 2021.

Which drugstore skincare brand saw sales soar in 2020 after TikTok's Hyram Yarbro kept praising it?

CeraVe reportedly sold 89% more worldwide that year. Founded in 2005, it had been bought by L'Oréal three years before the influencer's videos took off.

Which US newspaper's TikTok account was launched in May 2019 by its video producer Dave Jorgenson?

The Washington Post kept him as the face of its account until 2025, when he left to start his own media company, Local News International.

Which country banned TikTok in 2023 for disrupting social harmony, then lifted the ban in August 2024?

Nepal's ban set off protests and drew complaints from businesses that had relied on the app to promote themselves.

Which country's data regulator fined TikTok €345 million in 2023 over its handling of children's data?

Ireland's Data Protection Commission had opened two inquiries in September 2021: one into the protection of minors' data, the other into transfers of personal data to China.

Which news app, launched in August 2012, was the first big product from the company behind TikTok?

Toutiao means headlines. It started out as a recommendation engine, using big data to sort news by each reader's preferences.

TikTok food critic Keith Lee competed professionally in which sport before his reviews took off?

Mixed martial arts took him to the Bellator promotion, where he fought as Killa until losing his contract in 2021. He is not the wrestler of the same name.

Which University of Miami student rose to TikTok fame with chatty 'Get Ready With Me' makeup videos?

Alix Earle narrated her daily life while doing her makeup, a format she took up after posting a candid video about her acne. She graduated in marketing in 2023.