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Online social media (OSM) is one dominant force that has been driving information technology (IT) usage behavior for more than two decades. Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook—launched in 2002, 2003, and 2008, respectively—are arguably the most influential in shaping social networking landscape (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Online media sharing websites/services such as YouTube and Daily Motion (founded in 2005), and Vevo (founded in 2009) were launched around the same time and quickly became very popular among many different (in terms of socio-demographic characteristics) users in various parts of the word where the Internet was available.
While YouTube is still the leader among online media platforms, new market entrants, such as TikTok (various types of short-form videos), Triller (music-oriented short videos), Snapchat (music, sounds, and video effects videos), and Instagram Reels (short soundtracked video clips) are rapidly becoming a major challenge to YouTube domination in this realm. In this context, the present study is interested in examining key cognitive factors pertinent to TikTok usage because this phenomenon, while relatively new, is becoming increasingly widespread worldwide (Statista reports one billion active users as of 2021 [Statista, 2021a]), including Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia. In Thailand, in particular, the usage of TikTok has greatly increased in the last few years: from 0.53 million in 20017 to 7.4 million in 2021 (Statista, 2021b)—almost a 15-fold increase in four years.
TikTok is a social media service accessed by a website and/or an app for creating and sharing videos that can run up to 15 seconds; users can also use a variety of creative filters to customize and enhance their videos. People who use TikTok are mostly young individuals—about half of all the users (48%) are aged between 18 and 29 and well over half (64%) are high-school or college/university students (Pew Research Center, 2021). According to some media marketing experts and research studies, TikTok is popular among the younger generation because of its simple design and ease of use (Omnicore, 2021; Weimann & Masri, 2020). In fact, it appears to be well-adapted (by design) to younger people’s habits, behavior (social and individual), and patterns of online media and social app usage.
TikTok allows individuals to create soundtracked videos and share them with others. It is a form of micro-entertainment that serves as distraction or emotional escape for a couple of minutes during the day. It apparently is easy to use and it is quick to produce an anticipated result.
Given such a rapid and widespread growth and popularity of TikTok, various business can benefit from understanding the factors that shape users’ intention to continue using this technology. It would be useful for TikTok and similar service providers to utilize such knowledge to become more efficient in their efforts to gain a competitive edge over their business competitors. In addition, by understanding and increasing TikTok usage other businesses can enhance their online advertising by being able to reach larger audiences and distribute information about their new products and services.
It should be noted that initial acceptance of technology does not assure its continuance. Because discontinuance of social media happens (Boyd, 2013), and it can be financially and otherwise damaging for service providers, understanding users’ considerations regarding use of the technology is important.