Musical.ly for those who do not know is an ultra popular karaoke app that has taken middle schools by storm. It allows users to upload videos of themselves singing along to tracks to a social data base where their friends and family can watch and interact. This app introduced a younger generation to millions of new songs and helped even bring dance music into the main stream consciousness.
Now though, Musical.ly has been sold for one hell of a pretty penny. Bytedance, the company that controls the Chinese news wire service Toutiao purchase the app for somewhere between $800 Million and $1 Billion. This was a massive move as it unites the users of Musical.ly in America and Europe with the even larger population in China. The deal will no doubt be incredibly fruitful in terms of advertising ability.
It is refreshing to see companies finally let go of their prized possession when the giving gets good. Tech companies such as Twitter and Snapchat learned a tough lesson when they decided to not allow tech giants to purchase their companies and go public instead. It appears that Snapchat may not even survive 2018 before declaring bankruptcy. What does this mean for the future of Musical.ly? Honestly not much will change on the surface.
