TikTok trend tantalizes teens in Uruguay

MONTEVIDEO－According to the profile of the average Uruguayan internet user, which Radar consultancy prepares each year, young people's attention span for social media content is 1.7 seconds. It's hard to attract and keep their attention, but a Chinese application has managed to win over young people in Uruguay.

TikTok, a short-form video platform for smartphones, is no longer a well-kept secret among teenagers in Uruguay, as greater numbers of adolescents take to the user-friendly tool.

"I think that in 2020 it will take off in Uruguay," says Diego Barcia, manager in Uruguay and Chile of strategic social media communication agency Nicestream. "Some important brands in the world of football and entertainment are asking us for it."

Launched in 2016 in China as Douyin, TikTok allows users to create and share short videos with background music and edit them with time effects and filters－features that made it stand out worldwide.

"It's a super cool app that lets you share ephemeral content. That's what is attracting youth the most," Barcia says.

Among those interested in incorporating TikTok into their social media strategies is the Uruguayan Football Association, Barcia says. "We have a team at Nicestream working on it," he says. "We are looking at what type of strategy can have the most traction, because we are all new to the app.

"The struggle to retain users watching your content is great. It's quite the challenge for social networks and it's evident (that) TikTok is doing that well, because it is making progress in a fish tank full of sharks."

In October, Uruguay's national soccer team partnered with TikTok. Without promotion and with little content, the team succeeded in gaining 11,000 followers in just a few months, which is an "auspicious beginning", says Martin Sarthou, communications manager of the team. "We are not exploiting it yet and there is a very good base."

The team has so far produced little "native language" content on the platform, Sarthou says, but that should change this year with the incorporation of a platform specialist, who is also a "fan" that understands the team.

Noel Nuez, general director of TikTok for Spain and South America, described the incorporation of the national team as "a great opportunity to connect Uruguayan football with a global audience on the platform", which reaches around 150 markets in 75 languages.

Claudio Facelli, 26, is Uruguay's top user on the platform, with about half a million followers, and promotes a group called Urutokers that gathers popular local users of the app. Facelli is also known online as Claudinio.

The group has become more active, Facelli says, and "lots of things have started happening and brands are approaching us", proving the power of the popular social platform.

Xinhua