The social media service is becoming a super app
Tiktok copies the Wechat principle. (Photo: Ascannio / Shutterstock.com)
Tiktok opens up via an interface for HTML-based mini-apps from third-party providers. The video network is thus copying the extremely successful concept of so-called super apps, especially in China and many emerging countries.
With Jump, Tiktok has introduced a new function with which mini-programs specially written for this purpose can be integrated into the social media app. At the start there are such mini-programs among others from Wikipedia, the quiz provider Quizlet and the online publisher Buzzfeed. Users can specifically share content with their audience via these mini-apps. In this way, influencers can, for example, share surveys or recipes with their followers.
In addition, Tiktok will also open the Jump program to other providers in the future. They can then build their own HTML-based applications that can be used directly from the Tiktok app. For the time being, however, this option is only available to selected developers who have registered for inclusion in the Jump program need to apply.
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Wechat as a model for Tiktok
The underlying idea is based on the concept of so-called super apps, i.e. mobile applications from which countless other mini programs can be called up. The concept never really caught on in Europe and the USA, but it is very successful, especially in China and some emerging countries.
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The most successful super app is likely to be the Chinese messaging service Wechat. Because the Chinese internet company Tencent wanted to become independent of the large app stores, the company introduced an interface for mini programs in Wechat in 2017. With some success: today, it is estimated that there are more than a million services that can be accessed directly via the messaging app. These include e-commerce applications, games, and almost every other online service imaginable.
However, Wechat is by no means the only great app. The Chinese payment app Alipay, which emerged from the Alibaba Group, can now be expanded to include around 120,000 mini-programs. The same applies to other Chinese apps such as Baidu or Tmall. In India, on the other hand, the two payment apps Phonepe and Paytm act as super apps.
