Popular short video music app Musical.ly is merging with TikTok today, in a move to consolidate their substantial audiences just as Facebook and Instagram ramp up their own efforts to dominate bit-sized video.
Starting today, Musical.ly users will have their app switched to TikTok via an update; with their old account, videos and personal settings already in place in the new combined app.
Musical.ly is popular in the US with about 100 million users globally, and sister short video app TikTok claims 500 million monthly active users. Both are owned by ByteDance, the Chinese company that acquired Musical.ly for about $1 billion last year.
“TikTok, the sound of a ticking clock, represents the short nature of the video platform. We want to capture the world’s creativity and knowledge under this new name and remind everyone to treasure every precious life moment. Combining musical.ly and TikTok is a natural fit given the shared mission of both experiences,” Alex Zhu, the co-founder of Musical.ly and Senior Vice President at TikTok said in a statement.
The app consolidation comes a Facebook aggressively explores the same sector. In addition to aggressive promotion of video on Facebook and its Instagram platform, FB has already tested a Musical.ly like app and appears about to launch “Talent Show,” which allows users to sing popular songs and submit them to an ongoing talent contest.