Feature: Video-sharing app Tik Tok sparks passion among Kuwaiti teenagers

Tik Tok, a popular Chinese video-sharing app, becomes part of daily life for Afraa Mohammed, an 11-year-old Kuwaiti girl.

Afraa, who is in sixth grade, focuses on increasing her audiences by broadcasting more videos. She said that a lot of her schoolmates are following her on Tik Tok.

The Tik Tok application has become a phenomenon in Kuwait now where girls and boys aged between 10 and 13 can be seen broadcasting at shopping malls and in the parks, especially in good weather.

School students are competing for more "likes" on the application.

"My daughter has more than one thousand followers, mostly friends from her school and abroad. She creates videos broadcasted on Tik Tok by editing footage in line with music with passion," Afraa's mother told Xinhua.

Some Kuwaiti people use Tik Tok to promote children's products, such as Abu Omar, who sells Slime, a kind of toy with a slippery, gooey texture.

Tik Tok ranked on Sunday the fifth in the list of free apps in Kuwait, according to the Sensor Tower, which provides ratings for all applications in countries around the world.

The 12-year-old Ali Nasser said the most attracting thing about Tik Tok is that its video clips are not exceeding more than 15 seconds, in addition to the amazing editing tools that allow users to create better videos.

Yousef Nasser, Ali's father, admitted that he faced difficulty to accept the app, fearing for the privacy of his child's life.

"I convinced him to switch his account to private mood which is only for his friends and prevent comments, chat and video sharing," said Yousef.

The original idea of Tik Tok is to represent a scene of lip-syncing song by the user for no longer than 15 seconds. While with the teenagers around the world were impressed by many challenges they faced, the application spread with varied content.

Some people use it to summarize how to prepare a dish, and others show how to prepare their artwork.

Tik Tok, known as Douyin in China, started in September 2016 and was widely spread in China. Now, it becomes one of Kuwaiti teenagers' most favourable apps.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)