TikTok wants to be taken seriously. If not by the millions of teens worldwide who use the platform to show off their dancing and lip-synching skills, then surely by the world’s major marketers.

The social platform launched a TikTok for Business website last week to offer marketers resources and guidance for incorporating TikTok videos into their campaigns.

“TikTok For Business is where you can unleash your brand’s creative side,” reads the website’s landing page. “A fully immersive no judgement world where there’s an audience for every voice. No matter how big or small your business, no matter what you’re making or selling, we believe your brand deserves to be discovered here.”

The site includes tips and links to TikTok tools including its Creator Marketplace, which the company describes as “the official platform for brand and creator collaborations on TikTok” and its self-serve ad platform (not yet available in all regions).

TikTok for Business also provides links to case studies or “inspiration” to help marketers understand how they can best use TikTok in their campaigns. And studying the case studies may be the best way to absorb TikTok’s potential as an advertising and marketing vehicle. 

It’s all designed to get marketers who may have been hesitant to use the teenager-heavy platform thinking about how to utilize TikTok’s short-form videos for their business.

There’s certainly no denying its popularity. TikTok has 800 million global users. And while there are no super-recent statistics for U.S. users we could find, even before the COVID-19 pandemic—an event that led to an explosion of popularity for TikTok stateside—the app had been downloaded 37.2 million times in the United States.

Forty-one percent of users are between the ages of 16 and 24. And fun fact: TikTok has been downloaded 467 million times in India, which represents nearly one-third of the country’s total downloads.

(Image courtesy of TikTok)

Follow me on Instagram: @emilivesilind

Emili Vesilind

JCK Senior Editor