TikTok, whose mainland Chinese counterpart is Douyin (Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: Dǒuyīn: Shaking sound), is a short-form video hosting service owned by ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 3 seconds to 10 minutes.Since their launches, TikTok and Douyin have gained global popularity. In October 2020, TikTok surpassed 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide. Cloudflare ranked TikTok the most popular website of 2021, surpassing Google. TikTok's popularity has resulted in the platform having an increasing cultural impact worldwide.Its parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, is owned by founders and Chinese investors (20%), other global investors (60%), and employees (20%). TikTok Ltd owns four entities that are based respectively in the United States, Australia (which also runs the New Zealand business), United Kingdom (also owns subsidiaries in the European Union), and Singapore (owns operations in Southeast Asia and India).In April 2021, a state-owned enterprise owned by the Cyberspace Administration of China and China Media Group, the China Internet Investment Fund, purchased a 1% stake in ByteDance's main Chinese entity. The Economist, Reuters, and Financial Times have described the Chinese government's stake as a golden share investment.TikTok says that since 2020, the US based CEO is responsible for making important decisions. However, multiple reports claim that there is little functional separation between TikTok and it’s Beijing-based executives and software developers. TikTok has been noted for downplaying its connection with ByteDance and for eschewing questions about its relationship with the Chinese government.The app's privacy practices have also come under increased criticism and scrutiny. Several countries have restricted, banned, or attempted to ban the use of TikTok primarily due to national security concerns of possible user data collection by the Chinese government, children's safety, addictiveness, terrorism, antisemitism, toxic content, misinformation, and mental health.
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