Review
"A careful, detailed teardown of the people, culture and technology behind the world's most dynamic social network, TikTok. It is rare for a business analysis to read like a thriller – this one does."
Azeem Azhar, Founder, Exponential View
"TikTok is perhaps the fastest growing and most addictive social media tool yet created. This book is vital to understanding how it works and the impact it's having."
Damian Collins MP, former chairman of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee
In TikTok Boom, Stokel-Walker matches the unparalleled breadth and scale of growth of the Chinese platform with remarkable depth and spectacular wisdom. Blending journalistic narrative with state-of-the-art academic research, no other author comes close to weaving this epic tale of the rise of China’s first global platform threatening Silicon’s Valley hegemony while operating as inflection point around the rise of one globe two Internet systems. This is a must read for students, scholars, and policy makers.
David Craig, Clinical Professor, USC Annenberg
"It's clear that Stokel-Walker's strength is that he's not just TikTok-literate, he's TikTok-fluent. He knows the product, the people, and the entire ecosystem inside and out, and it is this familiarity that makes his telling so compelling, because he knows how to make you feel like you, too, are an insider in this strange new world."
Rui Ma, founder, Tech Buzz China
This book charts the story of an app on the rise that's changing the world of tech, charting the future of culture, and creating a new world of work: the creator economy... it breaks down some of the biggest questions for the future of work and culture.
Li Jin, Atelier Ventures
“While TikTok Boom does not attempt to chart the app’s cultural impact, it succeeds in clearly explaining its unparalleled growth. And it feels almost certain that we are witnessing only the beginning of its story.”
New Statesman
About the Author
Chris Stokel-Walker is a British journalist whose work regularly appears in WIRED, The Economist and Newsweek. He is known for breaking major news about YouTube and often reports on the site for television, radio and podcasts. For YouTubers he has travelled around the world, attending YouTube events and speaking to behind-the-camera producers and power- brokers, including key creators KSI, Hank and John Green, Emma Blackery, and many others.
