How it all began

Musical.ly was a 15-second short video streaming application with over 100 million active users. The application gave the user a wide variety of dialogue and music options. Users made entertaining videos using those options. 

The application was very popular with a plethora of content creators who rose to fame thanks to their content on the application. There was also an option to share videos on other media platforms, further increasing the application’s popularity. 

In August 2018, a Chinese company called ByteDance took over Musical.ly and transformed it into TikTok. The totality of its content was automatically transferred to the new application. 

(https://unsplash.com/photos/i7xNLAWRl2I)

In 2019 Tiktok was ranked second as the most downloaded app in the entire world. No wonder so many people are joining the world-renowned app. 

Spotting a trend before it becomes viral can be essential in creating content plans while acting rapidly. There are many ways to predict trends and anticipate what will become crucial in the near future. This article will discuss the four characteristics to watch out for in order to best predict Tik Tok’s most popular trends in 2021! Those who grasp these trends will have a significant advantage over other content creators. By reviewing these four traits, we will try to examine features and tools that are still in a novelty stage and see what aspects, strengths and weaknesses they possess to become major trends this year. 

1- It is Useful 

Trends are pretty straightforward, while novelties have uncertain value. Let’s take a look at Tesla’s example. When the company introduced its electric vehicles, many people hesitated to buy one because they were quite expensive. The technology was relatively new; gas prices weren’t specifically high, so why get one? This novelty evolved directly into a trend (accepted by a large number of people) after people became comfortable with the technology and the soaring prices plummeted. 

2- It Mixes With Other Trends

Most trends are the direct result of a process called trend blending. When multiple not-so-significant trends converge, they form the next major trend. In simpler words, a logical progression leads to the new trend. An example would be electronic tax filing. This became a possibility when spreadsheet programs gave rise to tax software, which gave rise to the e-tax filing. The E-tax filing replaces neither spreadsheet nor tax software, but the program was realized thanks to the mixture of both of them. 

3- It has Wide Appeal and Application

Only a small part of the population is interested in novelties; trends are appealing to a much larger segment, and that is most probably due to its cost. A trend’s application limits are nearly unlimited, while novelties possess a much narrower set of applications. While novelties develop fewer and fewer applications over time, trends develop a progressively increasing set of applications. An example would be mobile phones. When they just came out, they were extremely unreliable and expensive, few people possessed one, and as a result, there was not a lot of advantage to having one. This novelty evolved into one of the most widespread devices known to humanity. The prices dropped, networks expanded, and a plethora of users joined mobile networks. The pace of innovation directly correlates with the number of users, regardless of the service or product. 

4- It Has History

In a similar way to fashion, most trends are not exactly unique to our present day. They have had appearances in the past, in some form or another. The tricky part is that trends appear new because they are not represented in the exact same way twice. The context and the environment is what makes them seem new and subsequently renewed applications. Check for trends and analyze them as to how they can be reformed into newer ways of representation. 

Final remarks 

Using these four tips on spotting trends, you can analyze the market and try to figure out what the next big thing is, and use Tik Tok to your advantage to create content centered on that specific app/content/video/etc. Don’t forget to check out the MusicPromoToday blog for more similar content, and have a great day!