What Happened to Musical.ly

Musical.ly was a social media platform that enabled its users to create, share, and discover video-based content.

Members could pick from thousands of different songs.  They would then create videos lip-syncing to that music.

IMAGE VIA UNSPLASH

The video platform was launched in 2014 by former SAP executive Alex Zhu as well as Luyu Yang.

The founders went on to raise $150 million in funding. By the end of 2016, Musical.ly already boasted over 130 million registered members.

Musica.ly even inked deals with the likes of NBC and Viacom to create exclusive content for the platform such as Nick Cannon’s Wild ‘N Out.

IMAGE VIA Nick Cannon’s Wild ‘N Out FB PAGE

In late 2017, China’s Toutiao, a sub-organization of technology giant ByteDance, acquired Musica.ly for an eye-popping $800 million.

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A year after the acquisition and to the shock of many users, ByteDance announced the immediate shutdown of Musica.ly.

Musica.ly’s technology and user base were merged into another platform that ByteDance was unveiling to the world.

That platform ended up becoming TikTok, which has gone on to amass over 1 billion users and revolutionized the social media landscape. 

IMAGE VIA UNSPLASH

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