TikTok’s making an attempt out yet one more app because it seeks to broaden engagement alternatives, and faucet into broader utilization traits.
TikTok’s newest app experiment is one thing known as Whee, which is an Instagram-like feed of photographs, designed to solely be shared with mates.
As defined by TikTok:
“Whee is a brand new social app created to maintain you related along with your shut mates by life’s spontaneous moments. Seize and share real-life pictures that solely your pals can see, permitting you to be your most genuine self. Whee is the most effective place for shut mates to share life moments.”
However hold on, didn’t TikTok already launch a nonetheless picture primarily based app?
Sure, sure it did.
Again in April, TikTok launched a separate app known as Notes, which can also be a photograph sharing app.
That app additionally appears like Instagram, although it appears much more like TikTok’s different separate app Lemon8 which it launched final yr.
Lemon8 is extra particularly targeted on merchandise and promotions, so the use case isn’t the identical as Whee and Notes.
So what makes Whee and Notes totally different, and why is TikTok so hell-bent on facilitating picture sharing, alongside its major short-form video app?
Properly, when it comes to distinction, Whee appears to be targeted on pal sharing solely, whereas Notes is a extra broad viewers sort app.
Notes is described on the App Retailer as:
“TikTok Notes is a way of life platform that gives informative photo-text content material about folks’s lives, the place you possibly can see people sharing their journey ideas, every day recipes, and extra.”
So it’s extra of an IG-like public sharing platform for visible content material, versus enclosed sharing.
With reference to why photographs, that seemingly pertains to Chinese language market traits.
Tencent-backed Xiaohongshu, one other Instagram clone, has seen a giant rise within the Chinese language market of late, which has additionally expanded into eCommerce alternatives.
Seemingly, TikTok’s hoping to duplicate the identical with Notes in Western markets, whereas Whee would lean into extra non-public sharing, and possibly present customers with extra methods to share photographs of merchandise, providing additional analysis perception for TikTok advert focusing on?
I don’t know, however eCommerce is TikTok’s major focus, and it looks like it must be tied again to that by some means.
Both method, it does look like an odd launch, particularly contemplating that individuals already conduct most of one of these exercise on Instagram or Snapchat.
However TikTok’s making an attempt it out anyway, and it’ll be fascinating to see if/how they appear to entice customers throughout to the brand new visible app.