TikTok's journey from fun app to US security concern

San Francisco: As a law that could get TikTok banned in the United States is poised to go into effect, here is a look at the rise of the video sharing...

San Francisco: As a law that could get TikTok banned in the United States is poised to go into effect, here is a look at the rise of the video-sharing social media platform.

Genesis

In 2016, Beijing-based ByteDance launched Douyin, an app for sharing short videos, in the Chinese market.

ByteDance released TikTok for the international market the following year, shortly before buying "lip-synching" app Musical.ly and merging it into TikTok.

The social network became a hit, with its algorithm serving up endless collections of short, looping and typically playful videos posted by users.