02 INTRO

08 EDITOR'S LETTER

12 CHALLENGES
A trend-setting challenge culture through video creation and sharing.

26 OPINION: VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
Cultural critic Virginia Heffernan on TikTok's positive worldview

32 USER MANUALS
A user-friendly interface that allows for one-stop video recording, sharing, and playback.

40 KEY ELEMENTS
Key digital terms that provide clues to understanding the mobile era

44 OPINION: SEAN KIM
TikTok's head of director Sean Kim talks about TikTok as a super app.

48 TIKTOK GENERATION
Creators who put their creativity into short-form platforms.

70 DICTIONARY
32 Terms and Expressions Used in the TikTok Ecosystem

76 HALL OF FAME
Items given new value through TikTok

88 OPINION: SEUNGYEON KIM
Kim Seung-yeon, General Manager of TikTok Korea Global Business Solutions, discusses TikTok's digital market responsiveness.

92 TRANSITION
Legacy industries find solutions to survive in the mobile era through TikTok.

102 ENTERTAINMENT
TikTok presents a new marketing solution to the entertainment industry.

110 BRAND STORY
The success story of TikTok, a social media platform that encourages self-discovery rather than connection.

118 PARTNERS
External partners we've partnered with to evolve into a business platform.

120 INTERVIEW: NICK TRAN, KUDZI CHIKUMBU
TikTok Head of Global Marketing Nick Tran and Director of Creator Community Kuji Chikumbu share their brand direction and vision.

126 CREATIVE WORKSPACE
TikTok's mission to "inspire creativity and deliver joy" is etched into its organizational culture and LA office design.

132 All-Rounders
Hear about TikTok's work environment from an internal employee who works as a TikTok creator.

136 DIGEST
TikTok's record-breaking growth and what sets it apart from its peers

140 REFERENCES
Reference materials for the digital media ecosystem

151 OUTRO

This is the eighty-seventh issue of the magazine “B”.

When most people think about enhancing their quality of life, things like travel, culinary delights, shopping, physical activity, and community gatherings with like-minded individuals likely come to mind.
The time spent on this kind of work is sometimes called 'quality time'.
The concept of "work-life balance" has been on the rise for several years, and with the popularization of social media that exposes individuals' lives, an obsessive atmosphere has emerged that even private time must be used productively.
But as important as quality time is, there's something we overlook.
It's just a trivial time with no special input or output.
Personally, I believe that these small moments in time have a significant impact on the happiness and satisfaction we experience in life.
Because a few spoonfuls of triviality that seep into our daily lives play a significant role in sustaining our 'average life.'

The history of useless and trivial time is as long as the evolution of humanity itself, yet mass media has long treated it primarily as a source of ridicule or as a symbol of incompetence. Even in the new media landscape of social media, opportunities have been scarce.
It was often pushed out of the frame by the presence of information and insight, or intoxication and controversy.
It was just consumed as something exclusive to some geeks.
If it weren't for TikTok, the IT platform we're introducing in this issue (a bit of an exaggeration), I might never have realized the value of time.

Launched in 2017 and gaining traction in the United States, TikTok is a short-form mobile video platform known for its context-free, somewhat bizarre, and raw vertical videos.
Kicking bottle caps open, eating mini pancakes like cereal, or getting together with family or friends to do silly group dances are all common occurrences on TikTok, welcomed by millions of people.
Given this situation, even celebrities and artists who are already well-known often reveal a different side of themselves than those on existing social media.
Brands and advertising agencies are also studying the ecosystem to understand TikTok's grammar, or encouraging their employees to work as TikTok creators.

However, this does not mean that we can simply discuss this video sharing platform as a 'phenomenon'.
This is because the intentions and planning of TikTok, the producer who created and amplified the phenomenon, are more meticulous than any other platform.
The recommended feed that fills the screen as soon as you open the app constantly delivers new and interesting videos regardless of the number of followers or network within the platform. The app environment is designed to implement desired functions with minimal movement, both in terms of viewing and production.
This isn't the only reason the hurdles are low.
One of the worldviews TikTok has actively created through its specific features is the creation of a culture of idea duplication and reproduction, which has always been a source of controversy in the creative field.
Perhaps TikTok is a prime example of a case where 'form dictates content'.
And the format is very faithful to the human instinct for play.
The instinctive world they have created brings to mind the words of the philosopher Heidegger.
“We play because we play.
The 'because' disappears from play.
“There is no why in play.”

Editor-in-Chief Park Eun-seong