TikTok Launches "Whee," a Friends-Only Photo Sharing App
Short video social media sensation TikTok is venturing into the image sharing market with the app called Whee, meaning that the platform is eager to diversify the user activity on its site and benefit from the general tendencies in the social media sphere.
Whee: Sharing Among Friends
Whee takes inspiration from Instagram's photo-centric format but with a crucial twist: exclusively shows content to friends only. As it stands now the details are still sketchy but one can deduce that the app is meant to offer the users a more personal and real life way of recording and sharing those ephemeral moments in their lives with their friends.
Not the First Image Rodeo: Go To Step 10
Again, this is not the first time TikTok has experimented with still images. In April this year, they came up with “Notes,” which is yet another application for sharing photos. But Notes is more versatile than Stories, where you can share travel tips, recipes, various tips on lifestyle in general, post it publicly like Instagram.
Why the Image Focus?
And why is the short-form video app doubling down on images along with its bread-and-butter content?Here's a possible explanation: The rising trend of photo-sharing applications especially those in China. It is worth noting that the Chinese clone of Instagram, Xiaohongshu, which has Tencent’s backing, has shown that image sharing can coalesce with e-commerce without hitches.
Western Ambition and the E-Commerce Link
It may be that TikTok decided to repeat Xiaohongshu’s success with Notes in foreign countries. On the other hand, with its emphasis on private friend lists for sharing, Whee could potentially allow users to share photos of products, which could be useful for collecting data on advertising targeting within the TikTok app.
It is worth saying that the ultimate strategy is still uncertain, but it is without a doubt that e-commerce will be a significant focus for TikTok. It therefore makes sense to integrate sharing images into this larger goal in some manner.
Facing the Competition
Whee may appear as a peculiar avenue of development given the presence of more appropriate image-sharing applications such as Instagram or Snapchat. Still, you can’t doubt the company’s desire to try out new things, which is apparent in TikTok’s case. The question remains: are they capable of convincing the users to abandon the conventional photo sharing apps and embrace the new one?As of now it remains to be seen whether Whee will be able to create its unique place in the already rather saturated social media market.
