It's been downloaded over a billion times in the two years that it's been around.

從它推出的這兩年來，下載次數已超過十億。

And it has produced countless memes.

抖音也製造了無數個網路迷因。

Even Mark Zuckerberg sees TikTok as a threat.

就連臉書創辦人 Mark Zuckerberg 也視抖音為威脅。

But its rise hasn't been seamless.

但抖音的崛起並非順利的。

US senators have criticized TikTok for censorship, privacy, and child safety.

美國參議員批評抖音的審查機制、隱私權管理與兒童安全。

So, what's going on with TikTok?

所以，抖音是怎麼一回事？

TikTok has a bit of a complicated history.

抖音的歷史有點複雜。

It's owned by a parent company called ByteDance, which is from China.

抖音的母公司為 ByteDance ，一間中國的公司。

ByteDance is one of the most valuable startups in the world; it's thought to be a worth about $75 billion, which is massive.

ByteDance 是全球最有價值的新創公司之一，該公司市值約 750 億美金，非常龐大。

There are definitely concerns in the US about TikTok being a Chinese app that has become hugely popular in America.

美國的確對於抖音，一個中國的 app ，能夠在美國變得非常熱門而感到疑慮。

And, frankly, that's probably a mix of Americans being worried that their own homegrown companies, like Facebook, Google, etc., being outdone by a Chinese firm.

坦白來說，還要再加上擔心美國本土公司，如 Facebook、Google 等，被中國公司超越。

But secondarily, you know, this... this concern feeds into the wider backdrop of, uh, the US-China trade war.

再者，這樣的疑慮也成為中美貿易戰更廣泛的背景之一。

TikTok lets users easily share short, funny clips.

抖音讓用戶能輕易地分享有趣的短片。

That means things can go viral quickly, and that virality has helped TikTok grow.

代表東西很快就能爆紅，而這樣的爆紅也助長了抖音的成長。

So, TikTok has about one billion monthly active users, which is about the same as Instagram, and TikTok, in terms of downloads, is absolutely besting the competition; it's beaten Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook.

抖音每月的活躍用戶約為十億，與 Instagram 差不多。抖音在下載量方面，也高於競爭對手。它已經擊敗 Instagram、Snapchat 和 Facebook。

That's not to say in total TikTok is more popular than these apps; it's to say that it's growing really quickly.

這並不代表抖音比這些 app 更受歡迎，而是它的成長速度十分驚人。

Part of the reason is because TikTok is relatively new; it's only been around properly for one or two years, and, so, there's a kind of natural newness bias there.

一部分的原因是，抖音算比較新的 app，目前只推出一到兩年，所以它有新鮮感的存在。

You know, the billions of people who were already going to download Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, they'll have probably already downloaded those apps.

數十億人早就下載了 Instagram、WhatsApp 和 Facebook 等 app，因此他們的下載數已經不太會成長。

Whereas TikTok, being new, the number of, sort of, growing installs we're seeing is about people downloading that app for the first time.

由於抖音是新出的 app，我們看到的上升下載次數，多為第一次下載的人。

It's all about these short video clips, most of which are kind of snappy and funny and involve someone kind of dancing and lip-syncing to music.

抖音的成功歸功於短片，大部分都是些即興、有趣，加上一些人跳舞或跟著音樂對嘴的短片。

These things go viral really quickly, and it's also really easy to share what you've made on TikTok to other platforms.

這些東西很快地就爆紅，且你也可以輕易地分享你的抖音影片到其他平台。

TikTok is sort of a natural successor to the once-popular Vine.

抖音可說是曾經紅極一時的 Vine 繼任者。

But there's a lot that sets TikTok apart from its current competition.

但抖音也有許多特點，讓它在競爭者中能夠與眾不同。

One of the big criticisms of, let's say, Instagram, is that everything feels very artificial on Instagram.

Instagram 飽受抨擊的一點是，它的一切感覺都非常假。

It's not really an app about spontaneity or about posting spontaneously.

App 上的貼文一點也不自然，也不即時。

You know, it makes people feel kind of pressured to... to post the perfect picture, by extension, show that they're... they're living the perfect life.

它使人們在發表貼文前感到有壓力；一定要貼出完美的照片，因為這代表著他們過著完美的生活。

Where TikTok comes in, is it's a much more spontaneous, instantaneous, it's all about short clips, it's all about kind of goofing around.

而抖音比較自然、即時，裡面都是一些搞笑胡鬧的短片。

It's not about looking great or perfect.

而非讓外表看起來美麗或完美。

This is why it's so popular; people feel that they can just post immediately and they don't have to think too hard about the content.

這就是抖音受歡迎的原因：人們覺得可以直接發布影片，不需要過度思考內容。

I'm sure many of the more popular TikTok-ers do think very hard about what they post, but it feels much more instant than Instagram.

我相信仍是有許多抖音的名人，會花許多時間想影片要怎麼拍，但還是比 Instagram 要來得快速許多。

It's pretty clear just from who's posting on TikTok that the user base is younger than your average, certainly younger than the kinds of people who use Facebook.

從抖音上的內容，可以明顯看出平均用戶的年齡較為年輕，且絕對比 Facebook 的用戶年輕。

Probably younger than the 20- to 30-year-olds who are using Instagram.

或許還比 Instagram 平均 20 至 30 歲的用戶還年輕。

Having so many young users is a clear sign of TikTok's popularity.

擁有如此龐大的年輕用戶，象徵了抖音的流行。

But it's also gotten TikTok into trouble.

但這也讓抖音陷入麻煩。

In February, the company had to pay a 5.7-million-dollar fine after the Federal Trade Commission accused Musical.ly of violating US child-privacy laws.

二月時，因聯邦貿易委員會控告 Musical.ly（抖音）違反美國兒童隱私法，該公司得付 570 萬美金 ( 約 17 億台幣) 的罰款。

TikTok now requires users to verify their age in the app, although the age of TikTok's users isn't the only concern people have.

因此，抖音現在要求用戶要核實他們的年齡，但抖音用戶的年齡並不是人們唯一的擔憂。

There are definitely concerns in the US about TikTok being a Chinese app.

美國對於身為中國 app 的抖音，有絕對的擔憂。

And TikTok itself isn't really a Chinese app, per se; it was born out of an acquisition called Musical.ly, which was popular in the US and the West.

抖音其實並不完全是中國的 app，它誕生於曾經紅遍美國與西方國家的一款短影音 app——Musical.ly。

And ByteDance actually bought that, uh, in 2017 and re-skinned that to become what we now know as TikTok.

ByteDance 在 2017 年收購了 Musical.ly，將它重新包裝為我們現在所知的抖音。

But there's actually a sort of separate version of TikTok that is available inside China, but that's called Douyin, and that's slightly different.

但其實在中國要用別的抖音，叫 Douyin，與國際版的抖音 (TikTok) 有些微的不同。

Recently, Republican Senater Marco Rubio called for a committee investigation into TikTok over whether it should ever have been allowed to buy Musical.ly, which is not a Chinese company, and then, sort of, turn it into TikTok.

近期共和黨議員 Marco Rubio 要求成立委員會調查抖音，來看它是否有被允許買下非中國公司的 Musical.ly，並將之轉換為抖音。

Whether that investigation actually happens, I think, remains to be seen, and is, sort of, dependent on the US political environment.

無論該調查是否成立還得再觀察，而且也得取決於美國的政治環境。

Something to remember is that there's a much larger culture of fear, especially in the US, about China and Chinese companies.

一個重點是，美國對於中國與中國公司存在的恐懼正在滋生。

There's still some criticism that TikTok, being owned by a Chinese company, might succumb to some pressure by the Chinese government.

仍有人批評抖音是屬於中國公司，可能會屈服於中國政府的施壓。

Either to hand over data on its users to the Chinese government or to, kind of, censor topics that, you know, would be fine in the West and in Europe, but not ,sort of, okay inside China.

不論是將用戶資料交給中國政府，或是審查影片主題，像是在歐美沒問題，但在中國卻不太可行的主題。

We're not actually really conclusively sure that China does have an influence.

我們並無法確定中國是否真的對國際版抖音有影響。

Recently, "The Guardian" got hold of some moderation guidelines that show that, certainly, the parent company, ByteDance, was thinking about, um, you know, censoring videos that might be... that might cause offense to the Chinese government and other regimes.

近期，《衛報》獲得一些抖音公司的審核指南，顯示現在抖音的母公司 Bytedance 正在考慮審查可能會觸怒中國政府或其他政權的影片。

It wasn't just talking about moderating content offensive to China; it was talking about generally political content, too.

不是只有減少冒犯中國的內容，而是廣泛限制政治議題的內容。

So we do know that there are some thoughts, uh, inside the company about censorship.

我們的確明白這間公司對於審查機制有些想法。

But what we don't really know is, you know, practically how this filters through.

但我們不知道的是，這些事是怎麼過濾的。

There isn't an awful lot of proof that, uh, TikTok does take guidance from China in terms of what users can and can't post.

並沒有太多證據說明抖音聽命於中國政府，限制用戶可以發表的內容。

So far, the company has been quite good about explaining to journalists, uh, or at least giving statements to journalists, about how it works.

至今為止，該公司對媒體都還算開放，至少會解釋、發表聲明來說明抖音是如何運作的。

But it's definitely gonna continue batting off those concerns.

但該公司絕對得繼續對抗這些疑慮。

There's really no easy answer to how TikTok can balance free speech with Chinese censorship.

抖音該如何在言論自由與中國審查機制中取得平衡，並沒有輕鬆容易的解決方法。

It's gonna have to make calls on a case-by-case basis; it's probably gonna have to be really transparent about how and why it makes decisions.

他們只能一件一件事逐一處理，且他們可能得透明化解釋如何做出決定和原因。

But overall, other companies are really struggling with, uh... the... you know, appeasing China and... and maintaining the balance with free speech, including American companies.

整體而言，許多公司都很掙扎要如何在取悅中國與維護言論自由之中取得平衡，連許多美國公司也一樣。

So, Apple has run into issues over, um, banning an app related to the Hong Kong protests, and there's criticism that Apple has really kowtowed to China over that decision.

蘋果近期下架了香港民主運動的 app，有人批評 Apple 這個決定是在向中國卑躬屈膝的表示。

And, so, you know, even American companies are really struggling with, uh, keeping Chinese consumers and China's government happy while, you know, maintaining that balance with free speech.

真的就連美國的公司，也對於如何留下中國消費者與取悅中國政府感到掙扎，還得在言論自由中取得平衡。

Despite its rapid growth, TikTok hasn't developed a strong source of revenue.

儘管抖音成長快速，但它並沒有強大的收益來源。

TikTok has a lot of venture-capital backing, but it will have to generate a profit eventually, which could mean ads or pay-walled features.

抖音有許多創投基金支持，但它最終還是得自己賺錢，代表要有廣告或付費機制。

But if TikTok wants to continue growing at its current rate, it's going to have to find a way to gain the public's trust outside of China.

但如果抖音想要繼續以這種速度成長，它得找到方法取得中國以外，其他國家人民的信任。