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Evolution
ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese company owning and operating TikTok
Douyin was launched by ByteDance in China in September 2016, originally under the name A.me, before rebranding to Douyin in December 2016.[28][29] ByteDance planned on Douyin expanding overseas. The founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, stated that "China is home to only one-fifth of Internet users globally. If we don’t expand on a global scale, we are bound to lose to peers eyeing the four-fifths. So, going global is a must."[30] Douyin was developed in 200 days and within a year had 100 million users, with more than one billion videos viewed every day.[31][32] TikTok was launched in the international market in September 2017.[33] On 23 January 2018, the TikTok app ranked No. 1 among free app downloads on app stores in Thailand and other countries.[34]
TikTok has been downloaded more than 80 million times in the United States, and has reached 2 billion downloads worldwide,[35] according to data from mobile research firm Sensor Tower that excludes Android users in China.[36] Many celebrities including Jimmy Fallon and Tony Hawk began using the application in 2018.[37][38] Other celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Will Smith, and Justin Bieber joined TikTok as well and many other celebrities have followed.[39]
On 3 September 2019, TikTok and the US National Football League (NFL) announced a multi-year partnership.[40] The agreement occurred just two days before the NFL's 100th season kick-off at the Soldier stadium, where TikTok hosted activities for fans in honor of the deal. The partnership entails the launch of an official NFL TikTok account which is to bring about new marketing opportunities such as sponsored videos and hashtag challenges.
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