Musical.ly

Rebranded

Shanghai, China (originally); Santa Monica, California, United States (US operations) · Founded 2014

201-500 employees · ~$26.5M

Sourced & current · updated Oct 25, 2026

Musical.ly, now TikTok, was a short-form video and social media platform that operated from its launch in 2014 until it was folded into TikTok in 2018.

Where they sit

Stack tier: Ecosystem Services (A)

Social Media ManagementContent Discovery

Pioneer of the short-form lip-sync and music video app category; directly succeeded by TikTok after ByteDance acquisition and merger

Ownership

Parent: ByteDance