Popular Chinese short-video making platform TikTok has been working to improve the user experience. The company recently said it is testing a user profile redesign. It is similar to the photo and video-sharing platform Instagram’s profile layout. The user profile redesign follows count to the left and makes bios more prominent. Instagram profiles also have their followers count to the left and emphasize more on bios. Instagram is owned by Facebook. TikTok said the redesign will give users more ways to personalize and engage with their profiles. The profile overhaul has been rolled out by TikTok to select users. It will be extended to users worldwide once the testing phase is over.
TikTok in a statement confirmed that it is testing user profile redesign that is aimed at enhancing the user experience. Meanwhile, TikTok in a bid to monetize the platform is also testing a feature that lets users add links to e-commerce sites to their profile bio. Besides, it also offers creators the ability to send viewers to shopping websites. The app allows users to create short videos wherein they lip-sync along to songs in the background. TikTok also uses multiple filters and other additional video editing features to add effects. It allows users to reply to one another and even do joint videos on a split-screen.
TikTok is owned by Zhang Yiming. He is China’s ninth richest man. TikTok has gained immense popularity, especially among youngsters ever since it was launched in 2016. Since then, there has been a race in the industry to launch short-video apps. TikTok was the second most downloaded app in 2019, surpassing Facebook and Instagram. It is available in 40 languages on both the iOS and Android platforms. TikTok recently reached 1.5 billion downloads worldwide on the App Store and Google Play. According to the company’s claim, India leads the chart with 466.8 million which accounts for 31 percent of all unique installs. The US is ranked third with 37.6 million downloads.
