How to Make an App Like TikTok: All-in-One Development Guide

TikTok’s user base has grown from zero to over a billion in just five years.

The market valuation of ByteDance, the company standing behind TikTok app development, is around 140 billion USD.

The success of the app inspires many businesses to think about how to make an app like TikTok.

DEFINE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Do you know what all the successful apps have in common?

Their creators didn’t jump headfirst into app development. Thorough market research proceeded the development stage. Without knowing your competition, identifying your niche and target audience you won’t be able to create an app like TikTok.

Below are some of the steps that you need to go through to avoid making a costly mistake.

SEARCH THE MARKET

Market research is the first step you should take.

This stage is essential in getting the first impression of the competition and available solutions out there. Take a look at the most popular apps, including TikTok, see how users are interacting with them, analyze their key features and Unique Value Proposition (UVP).

Pro tip: don’t try to copycat TikTok or any of the similar existing applications. Take them for example to come up with a unique app idea that will stand from the crowd.

IDENTIFY A NICHE

You already know that you want to create an app like TikTok.

But what will your niche be?

TikTok is a huge social media platform that serves all niches. For a new application, a better strategy might be starting with a single niche. For example, you can create an app where users will share their cooking videos or you can develop an app that will allow sharing fitness videos.

You should decide on the niche before you move on to TikTok app development.

DEFINE THE TARGET AUDIENCE

Defining your target audience means identifying pain points and understanding how you can address them with your application.

As you are working on your user persona, you need to describe them with all the details:

• Age
• Location
• Family
• Occupation
• Yearly income
• Education level
• Social media apps they use

The more precisely you identify the target audience, the more likely your app will hit them in the heart.

IN-APP PURCHASES

In-app purchases are one of the ways TikTok makes money. The company offers in-app coins that users can donate to influences during live shows. But influencers only receive 50% of all the donated money. The rest goes to TikTok, the App Store, and Google Play, as they take a fee for all in-app purchases.

To leverage this monetization strategy, you’ll need to come up with a unique offering, such as in-app currency, special honorary badges, etc.

ADVERTISING

When exploring how to make an app like TikTok and repeat its financial success, you can’t ignore the fact that this app is a powerful advertisement platform. The ads platform brings TikTok a lion’s share of the revenue. The company draws around $1.3 billion in annual ad sales in the USA.

Today, TikTok relies on three advertisement models to generate revenue:

• Cost per click – advertisers pay the platform for every click generated
• Cost per view – payment is charged for every display of the ad on the platform
• Cost per action – advertisers only pay when users perform a predefined action (install an app or purchase something)
• Fundraiser – the initial funding of TikTok was around 3 billion dollars. No wonder the company could build a complex app that now has billions of users. You can start fundraising with only an app idea or engage this revenue model when you have a working prototype on your hands.

SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT analysis helps to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to business competition and project planning. During this stage, you’ll need to decide what problem your app will solve, what value it will bring, and whether it has a chance to stand out in the target market.

WHAT IS THE TIKTOK ALGORITHM?

Tiktok’s algorithms are what make the app tick. The application relies on the recommendation system that determines which videos appear in your feed. The algorithm takes into account a number of factors to provide users with the most interesting content, such as:

• Accounts users follow
• Creators that users have hidden
• Where users added comments
• Videos liked or shared
• Videos added to favorites
• Videos marked as “not interesting”
• Videos reported as inappropriate
• What type of videos users interact the most with
• Content users create

Analyzing these and many other algorithms, TikTok creates content recommendations. This algorithm is what makes the app so addictive among users, as they always have the content they like in their feed. You can create such a feature equipping your app with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO DEVELOP AN APP LIKE TIKTOK?

TikTok app development cost can start at around $60,000 for the simplest meaningful app version for a single platform. The development takes around 3-6 months. If you decide to add another platform, you will have to multiply the cost by two. The addition of more features will also cost you additional expenses. Read more about How to Make an App Like TikTok.