TP Em.010 2021
TP Em.010 2021
TANACHOT SURAWATTANAWISES
..............................................................
Mr. Tanachot Surawattanawises
Candidate
.............................................................. ..............................................................
Assoc. Prof. Nathasit Gerdsri, Assoc. Prof. Winai Wongsurawat,
Ph.D. Ph.D.
Advisor Chairperson
.............................................................. ..............................................................
Assoc. Prof. Vichita Ractham, Nisit Manotungvorapun,
Ph.D. Ph.D.
Dean Committee member
College of Management
Mahidol University
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, the researcher could not have been done this research without the
advice from Assoc. Prof. Nathasit Gerdsri, Ph.D., the researcher advisor. The researcher
was very grateful for his help in every week that could develop the research to be better.
He has tough detail since the beginning of the research. He also checks every detail and
give a very helpful advice.
Furthermore, the researcher would like to thank you to all of his friends who
always stay beside and cheer him up when he feels tired and discourage.
Lastly, the researcher would like to express gratitude to parents and family
members for being with the researcher in every moment during the hard time working
in this paper.
Tanachot Surawattanawises
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ABSTRACT
Time changes, people's behavior changes, new generation people use social
media more and more. People spend time on social media longer, social media has a
strong impact on human life nowadays. Since social media is the easiest and the most
impactful way to promote the products to many customers, a lot of big companies use
influencers to promote their product because it has more impact than using the old
traditional way like using celebrities. Therefore, a lot of influencers become famous and
successful in their careers. This changed people's minds, in the past people might want
to be something secure like a doctor, nurse, police or soldier. Currently, there are many
successful video content platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook in the
market. All of these platforms are from the United States but in recent years there is one
of the newest rising platforms from China that is very popular worldwide among
teenagers which is “TikTok”.
KEY WORDS: Popularity / Social media marketing / Social media star / Perceived ease
of use / Usage Intention
37 pages
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CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF TABLES vi
LIST OF FIGURES vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Research Questions 4
1.2 Study Objective 4
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1 Popularity 5
2.2 Social Media Marketing 5
2.3 Viral Content 6
2.4 Social Media Stars 7
2.5 Perceived Ease of Use 7
2.6. Usage Intention 8
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 9
3.1 Interviewee Selection Criteria 10
3.2 Interview Question 11
CHAPTER IV FINDING ANALYSIS 12
4.1 Demographic 12
4.2 Primary Key Factor 25
4.2.1 Personal entertainment 25
4.2.2 Ease of use of the platform 25
4.2.3 Earn extra money apart from the main job 25
4.2.4 Gain popularity on social media 26
4.2.5 Improve the accessibility to customers 26
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CONTENTS (cont.)
Page
4.2.6 Suitable video length 26
4.3 Secondary key factor 26
4.3.1 Expanding the channel 26
4.3.2 Reaching a new group of audience 27
4.3.3 Sharing the interest 27
4.3.4 Easy to make the video go viral on the platform 27
4.3.5 The platform is new to the market 27
4.3.6 Contents on the platform are up to date 28
4.3.7 Supported form platform staff 28
4.3.8 Right target audiences 28
4.3.9 Making money as a main job 28
4.3.10 The platform is open for newcomers 29
4.3.11 Variety of contents on the platforms 29
4.3.12 To show the skill and ability of the creators 29
4.3.13 Gain high engagement of contents 29
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION 30
5.1 Primary Key Factor 30
5.2 Secondary Key Factor 31
5.3 Recommendations 32
5.4 Limitations of the Study 33
5.5 Further Research 34
REFERENCES 35
BIOGRAPHY 37
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
4.1 Demographic of the interviewees 12
4.2 Description of the group of interview respondents 14
4.3 Respondent from interviewees 14
4.4 Comparative finding from three group of content creators 24
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1.1 Statistics of Social media user’s vs population 1
1.2 Statistics of Daily time spent using social media 2
5.1 Conceptual Framework 31
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
“Why did TikTok become successful in a very short time?” I am writing this
paper to get to know more about why people start to create the content on TikTok
platform which is the new platform while there exist successful platforms such as
YouTube and Facebook. What are the keys influencing them to choose TikTok and what
are the benefits that they get from the platform?
Nowadays social media has had an impact on people's lives. In January 2021
there were 55 million social media users in Thailand which is increasing around 3
million users (5.8%) compared between 2020 and 2021. If we compared the social
media users with Thai population, the number of social media users was equivalent to
78.7% (Figure 1.1) of the total Thai population. In addition, video sharing platform such
as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok has gained huge number of consumers,
94.2% of social media users using YouTube, 93.3% of social media users using
Facebook, 64.2% of social media users using Instagram while 54.8% of social media
users using TikTok. The average time that Thai people using social media is around
2.48 hour per day (Figure 1.2) (Datareportal, 2021)
Figure 1.1 The chart shows statistics of social media users vs population.
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Figure 1.2 The chart shows statistics of Daily time spent using social media.
A lot of YouTubers are famous and become influencers within a very short
time. And a lot of successful YouTubers have a very good image (get rich, have a lot of
work, have a comfortable life) as they usually present it in their videos. These could
affect the new generation's dream of jobs. Time changes people's perception also. In the
past, if you ask young kids what they want to be in the future? The answers might be
those secure jobs that you are familiar with such as government officer, teacher, doctor,
or soldier. Nowadays, if you ask the same question with generation Z kids, aged around
8-12-year-old, one of the most popular jobs that a lot of new generation people want to
be, but many parents might not be familiar with is “YouTuber, Vlogger or Content
creator”.
A YouTuber is any person who creates video content and publishes their
video on YouTube intending to grow a community. But only the users who are attracting
social interest in their content are considered as successful YouTubers. Once the users
have many subscribers and become well known in social media, they also can earn
income multiple ways from being YouTuber. The first way is Google AdSense. When
their content is famous and receiving many views, business companies will try to place
their company advertisement on the video to increase the company's awareness. The
second way is Google Partner. YouTube will offer the successful users in the platform
with the high subscribers to be part of their program. The users who joined the program
will generate avenues for visits from the visitors. And the last one is Products
Advertising. YouTube is one of the most potential channels that the company wants to
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promote its products. By showing and making the reviews on the product will make the
video audience stimulate purchase. This is probably the most effective way to generate
income for YouTubers.
A previous study stated there was a survey that asked 3,000 kids aged 8 to
12 in the United States and the United Kingdom. A survey asked kids to choose one
from five professions: astronaut, musician, professional athlete, teacher, or
vlogger/YouTuber. 30% or around 900 kids out of 3000 want to be vloggers/YouTuber.
Studies show that social media has a huge effect on society. The strong development in
social media has brought a lot of change in social life, especially for young people. Many
people not only become YouTube visitors regularly but also want to be YouTubers.
In 2020, there was big immigration that happened with social media. I notice
many famous YouTubers, Instagrammers, or bloggers expanding the channel or
changing platforms that they used into the new platform which is TikTok. The TikTok
application was first launched by ByteDance in China in 2016 with the name of 抖音
which provided the services only in China mainland. In 2017, ByteDance was the
application TikTok launched in the international market. From 2017-2019, TikTok
became popular in the USA, China, and India by that time TikTok was not yet popular
in the Thai market. In the beginning, TikTok was only popular among a small group of
people (mostly Thailand countryside). But in 2020, during the covid-19 pandemic, Thai
people got locked down and by that time TikTok became popular in the Thai market.
Although, there were successful platforms in the market such as YouTube
and Facebook that were available for the users to open an account and start creating
content on the platform. But, why do people choose to create content on TikTok whether
the new creators or successful creators from other platforms?
The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence Thai digital
content creators that expanded the channel, migrate to the TikTok platform, or start to
do the content on the TikTok platform at the first channel. The outcomes of this study
may be beneficial to digital content creators, company owners, digital agencies (ex.
Influencer agencies, PR agencies), and people who are interested in doing digital
content. These groups of people can use this paper as information for deciding on
expanding the market or opening new channels on the TikTok platform. Moreover, this
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study will help people to know the benefit of being the content creators on the TikTok
as nowadays social media is one of human life and a lot of people want to be social stars.
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Popularity
Online-contents on social media frequently experience an ebb and flow in
popularity. Thus, evolution involves different stages. Recently, social media platforms
have become an important place that allows users to interact with others. On social
media platforms, the users also can share information or express their opinions. The
interactive behavior will drive the content on the platforms to become popular. Thus,
the popularity of online content needs a high engagement and a high number of another
users' attention. (Kong, Mao, Chen, Zeng., 2018). Creators with a high number of
followers lead to higher perceived credibility, but the higher number of following
perceived influencer credibility (Messiaen, 2017).
This research will focus on the popularity of creators and online video
content (e.g. TikTok). Popularity can link to the need of a creator, whether the creators
create the contents just for fun or have a goal which is to be social media stars. One of
the factors that could encourage them to continue creating the content is to be popular
on the social media platform.
more credibility and have higher viral and purchase intentions compared to those who
do not focus only on the product category(Messiaen, 2017).
In this paper, social media marketing can be one of the benefits that creators
can do on the TikTok platform. Once content creators become popular and have a
potential to deliver the key message of the product and generate the awareness of the
brand. Social media marketing is one of the benefits that the creator can do to make
money. Since TikTok is one of the online video content media platforms, content
creators can create a video on the platform easily. Therefore, doing social media
marketing on TikTok is easier than on other platforms. This could lead to the reason that
creators use the TikTok platform.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research aims to understand the factors that make digital content
creators using the TikTok platform to create online content instead of other platforms
that are famous and come earlier than the TikTok platform. Thereby, this research has
interviewed the TikTok users who create the content on the platform. Content creators
on TikTok that the researcher will focus on can be separated into two groups, which are
the content creator who just starts create the content and chosen the TikTok platform as
their first platform to start creating the contents, and another group is content creators
who have been creating content on other platforms before and decided to move or
expand the channel into the TikTok platform.
The researcher has used primary research with a qualitative method, to
collect information and understand the factors that make digital content creators create
content on the TikTok platform. According to the Covid-19 pandemic situation in
Thailand, people have to keep distancing themselves from each other. Therefore, the
researcher has interviewed interviewees who related to the topic by video call and voice
call interview.
This research mini-interview is a suitable methodology to explore the
insight, opinions, and experiences of interviewees. Hence, a mini-interview is a
qualitative research technique that will be used to collect data for this research. By using
a mini-interview technique the researcher not only will understand the opinion of
interviewees but also can feel the feeling of the interviewees when they answer the
questions. The researcher has used open-end questions to interview interviewees. To
make interviewees feel free to share and express their opinion. The data and information
will be richer if the interviewer could dig down more into the answers that interviewees
have provided. In addition, the researcher could gain more ideas from interviewees'
answers and could generate more insight in this paper. Moreover, the researcher decided
to use a mini-interview in order to gain more information from many people. Instead of
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interviewing for in-depth information from only a few people, the researcher decided to
break down the question and interview 30 TikTok content creators. The researcher uses
around 15 minutes or less per creator. Before the interviews, the researcher has sent the
example of a guide question to the interviewees to give time to prepare an answer.
The main objective of the interview is to understand the factors that drive
digital content creators both new content creators creating online content or creators
who have experience on other platforms but are expanding or immigrating into the
TikTok platform. And also, to understand the benefit of the platform that is provided to
attract content creators to create the content on the platform.
CHAPTER IV
FINDING ANALYSIS
4.1 Demographic
In this interview, the interviewer interviewed 30 interviewees who are
TikTok content creators about the opinion and factors that they think are the important
reasons that influenced them to choose TikTok platform among all others platform in
the market.
The range of the age of TikTok creators in this interview is from 18-32
years, consisting of female 17 people (56.66%), male 5 people (16.67%) and LGBTQ+
8 people (26.67%). The duration of being the creators on TikTok is between 3 months
to 2 years.
The purpose of these interviews is to find the factors that influence digital
content creators to create the content on the TikTok platform by using a mini-interview
method with the content creator who has been using TikTok for more than three-months.
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Beauty1-Beauty10 This group is referred to the creators who focus on the content
about beauty (hair, makeup and skincare)
Fashion1-Fashion10 This group is referred to the creators who focus on the content
about fashion(clothes)
Lifestyle1-Lifestyle10 This group is referred to the creators who focus on the content
about lifestyle (eat and travel)
For personal "At the beginning, I just made the content just for fun, I wanted to
share and develop my make-up skill with other people"(Beauty4).
entertainment
“I start creating the content on TikTok just for fun, but after I have
good feedback on my content that makes me continue creating the
content on the platform” (Beauty6).
"I create the content on TikTok just for fun. I just do it when I am
free"(Beauty7).
"I create the content on the platform just for fun, I would like to
practice myself so I decided to record myself when I makeup and post
it on the platform"(Beauty9).
For personal "I create the content on the platform just for fun, starting from the
pandemic that I have to stay quarantined at home"(Lifestyle2).
entertainment (cont.)
"I really enjoy creating the content on TikTok especially during
Quarantine at home"(Lifestyle7).
"I create the content just for fun during my free time"(Lifestyle8).
Ease of use of the "I am not good at video editing but on TikTok, there are many tools
that I can use to finish my video within the platform that makes my
platform life easy"(Lifestyle1).
"I think the tool that is provided on the platform is enough for me to
edit my video, so I do not have to use many applications to edit my
video"(Beauty3).
"The TikTok platform has a lot of songs that the creator can use
without worrying about the copyright"(Beauty5).
"There are a lot of tools that support the creator to create short videos
on the platform, therefore I can create videos on the platform so
easily"(Beauty6).
"There are a lot of filters and songs available for use on the platform,
which is very convenient for me to create the video"(Beauty7).
"I can edit everything within the platform whether voice-over, filter,
and all the effects that are very easy for me"(Fashion6).
"What I like the most is there are many supported tools for editing the
videos and that is all I need"(Lifestyle2).
Ease of use of the "The platform is easy to use, takes a very short time to
understand"(Lifestyle6).
platform (cont.)
"There are many features that I can use to create my
content"(Lifestyle7).
Earn extra-income "In the past, I got promoted products jobs from my Instagram job a
lot, but since there is high competition, so recently I got a job on
apart from the main TikTok more than Instagram because the platform is new to the
job market with low competition"(Beauty1).
"After doing this for a while I also got a sponsor from the restaurant
that wants me to promote their product on my channel. It is nice to
have extra money from my hobby”. (Lifestyle1).
"It is nice to have an extra job apart from my main job, so I can spend
more money to buy what I like"(Beauty3).
"With the high number of followers on the platform, many brands are
contacting me to promote their products. I can earn extra money apart
from my main job” (Beauty6).
"When I first started doing the content, I was not yet graduated so I
got the money from promoting products on my channel"(Beauty5).
"Even if I earn not much money from the sponsor, at least I earn
some"(Beauty8).
"Right now, I am still new to the platform and my followers are still
low, but it would be nice if I can earn extra income from creating the
content on the platform in the future"(Beauty9).
Earn extra-income "I want to earn money from the extra job that I can choose from
working by myself and I think TikTok is one of the platforms that I
apart from the main can get the money from promoting the product"(Fashion1).
job. (cont.)
"My friend told me that he got 108k followers on TikTok and got so
many jobs there, so I decided to try to create the content during my
free time and now I got some extra money from sponsors"(Fashion2).
"After gaining more followers, I got many sponsors and extra money
from creating content on TikTok"(Fashion8).
"After I can bring someone on the platform, I will have a sponsor and
earn the money from them"(Fashion9).
"It's nice to create the content in my free time after class and earn a
little extra money from sponsors"(Lifestyle3).
"I got many sponsors from the platform, so I can earn extra
money"(Lifestyle5).
"I can earn extra money from sponsors after I created the content on
TikTok for a while"(Lifestyle9).
"I can earn some extra money from sponsors, although it is not that
much it is better than I earn nothing"(Lifestyle10).
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Expanding the “Time changes, people's behavior changes also. Content with a nice picture
is not enough, people like to watch short videos. So, I tried to do something
channel new on a new platform” (Beauty1).
"I used to create content on Instagram only but I think It is better to have
more channels to show my potential"(Beauty2).
"I used to create the content on YouTube for more than 3 years, but after
TikTok came to Thailand I saw the potential of the platform so I decided to
expand my channel by uploading my content on TikTok to reach a larger
audience"(Beauty7).
Gain popularity “I used to do the content on Instagram, but my followers are increasing so
slow. After starting to create the content on TikTok the followers on my
on social media Instagram have also increased” (Beauty1).
"My job is based on my followers, as high as I have my wage will get higher
also, creating content on TikTok makes my followers increase
faster"(Beauty2).
"Even though I was not a well-known blogger when I first started using
TikTok, my followers are increasing so easily on TikTok"(Beauty3).
"I want to create a channel that people will know and see me more and I
think TikTok is one of the potential platforms"(Fashion6).
"I want to gain followers and move or expand to other platforms in the
future"(Fashion8).
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Gain popularity "When the content goes viral easily that means I can gain followers easily
too"(Fashion10).
on social media
(cont.) "I want to gain followers on the platform"(Lifestyle10).
Improve the "I think the TikTok platform supports creators to reach their audience while
other platform creators have to find a way to reach an audience by
accessibility to themselves"(Beauty3).
customers "The average view of my video on TikTok is around 30,000 views per video.
the number is high compared to other platforms that I got just a few hundred
views per video"(Beauty4).
"With the support on the platform, I do not need to have high followers but
I can have high engagement on my video"(Beauty6).
"I used to do the content on other platforms but I have very low engagement,
but on TikTok, I have very high engagement in almost every
video."(Beauty8).
"What I like the most about the TikTok platform is the platform that helps
me to spread my content to the people who may like my style according to
the hashtag that I post"(Beauty9).
"On TikTok, I feel like I am a real creator, what I have to do is only create
content that audiences might like the most. but for the marketing part, the
platform will help me spread my video contents to people who might like
it"(Fashion4).
"On TikTok, there is a higher chance that people will see my content than
other platforms"(Fashion6).
Suitable video "To take 1 video clip to upload on YouTube is too tired for me, I prefer to
take 10 videos on TikTok rather than 1 video on YouTube (Beauty1)".
length
"On the YouTube platform the creator has to create a long video(more
than10 minutes) but on TikTok, it needs just 1 minute, which is a lot easier
for a starter like me(Beauty6)".
"I took about 6 hours to edit one video for upload on YouTube but for
TikTok, I took only half an hour"(Beauty4).
"I do not like long videos, I like to create short but concise
videos."(Beauty9).
"People at my age like to watch short videos rather than long one"(Beauty10).
"The video is very short and not too detailed so it is very easy to
do"(Fashion8).
"Because TikTok is a short video platform so it requires less time to edit the
video"(Fashion9).
"I think now people's behavior has changed a lot, they prefer to watch short
videos rather than long one like before"(Fashion10).
"Short videos would answer the new generation's needs, according to the
behavior that has changed"(Lifestyle4).
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Reaching a new "Not only the users that follow me can see my video but also people
interested in the similar content will see my videos, these made my followers
group of audience increase so fast (Lifestyle1)".
"Not only the people who follow me will see my content, but the platform
also helps me to spread the content to people who may like it"(Fashion1).
"My contents always reach the new group audiences when I upload. So, I
could gain followers easier and faster than other platforms"(Fashion7).
Sharing the "I like to snap a video of my food before eating and share it online. just to
keep it as my online diary and also share the experience with my
interest. friends"(Lifestyle1).
"I want to share my interest with other people who might have the same
interest as me on the platform"(Lifestyle4).
Easy to make "My videos often go viral and every time my video goes viral my followers
increase so fast"(Beauty1).
content go viral on
"On TikTok, your content can easily go viral, if your content is interesting
the platform enough"(Fashion2).
"I think on TikTok the contents go viral easier than other platforms, my very
first video went viral with 15 million views and 500 shares. I never expected
that I could create content that has this high"(Lifestyle1).
"With the good content and good music, the content can go viral
easily"(Fashion6).
"On TikTok, there is a high chance that your videos can go viral"(Fashion10).
"The content can go viral and reach the target of the creator easier than other
platforms"(Lifestyle8).
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The platform is new to "When I first uploaded a video on the TikTok platform, the platform
was new to Thai market which meant I had fewer competitors
the market compared to other platforms"(Lifestyle1).
"I chose TikTok because it is new to the market and very popular in
the social world by the time I started to do the online
content"(Beauty5).
Contents on the "TikTok trends change so fast, so I never get bored with the same
content"(Beauty3).
platform are up to
date. "TikTok always launches new campaigns for the creator to make the
content, so I do not need to be very creative about the content, I just
follow the campaign that the platform launched"(Beauty4).
"The trend on TikTok changes almost every week, so I just create the
content following the trend, just be the follower no need to be the
leader"(Beauty5).
Support from the "It is a lot convenient to have support from staff, so I can ask them
when I have a question about the platform and they always update me
platform’s staff about the trend on the platform"(Beauty4).
Right target audiences "People around my age usually consume TikTok more than other
platforms, I think the people who use TikTok should be my
target"(Beauty4).
Making money as a "I am a full-time influencer and TikTok is one of the channels where
I can make money"(Beauty7).
main job
"Currently I am unemployed so the only job that I can earn money
from is to promote the product on TikTok, YouTube, and
Instagram"(Beauty8).
The platform is open "TikTok is open for the new face of the creator, even though I have
no follower or no experience before but If my content is good TikTok
for newcomers also make my content go viral"(Beauty7).
Variety of contents on "From my experience, TikTok contents are more creative than other
platforms"(Beauty7).
the platform
"Beauty content on TikTok is very creative and attractive, I have
learned a lot of skills by creating content on the platform"(Beauty10).
"There are various types of content on TikTok and most of them are
very creative"(Fashion4).
"I can watch and learn many creative ideas from other creators and
adapt with my contents"(Fashion10).
"Creative ideas and trends come and go so fast, I never get bored and
always do something new all the time"(Lifestyle2).
To show the skill and "I want to show my skill and ability in a creative way to other
people"(Fashion5).
ability of the creator
"I want to create the content from my potential and share it with other
people"(Fashion9).
Get high engagement "I post the same content on several platforms but the platform that has
the highest engagement is TikTok"(Fashion5).
of contents
"With the same length of video clip, I always have a high engagement
on TikTok ''(Lifestyle5).
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Personal entertainment. 4 2 3 9
Expanding channel. 3 0 1 4
platforms said that TikTok platform is one of the potential platforms that could reach
the audience so easily, therefore they want to expand the channel to reach the new group
of people.
some creators use TikTok because it is new to the market and they just want to try
something new.
work as an extra job but some successful creators work as their main job to earn money.
Many creators said that TikTok is one of the potential platforms where they could have
a chance to collaborate with a big company. Some people got only a few jobs from the
platform but some people got many so they can work as their main job.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
The study of this research paper is to understand and find the factors that
influence Thai digital content creators to create content on the TikTok platform which
is very new to the market compared to the existing one such as YouTube, Facebook,
and Instagram. The research question is “Factors influencing Thai Digital content
creators on content creation: A case of The TikTok platform”. The researcher has
conducted qualitative research using the video call interview technique with the mini-
interview method so the researcher can understand the insight for each of the influence
factors from the creator's perspective. The researcher has interviewed 30 TikTok content
creators separated into 3 groups of content creators which are 10 beauty content creators,
10 fashion content creators, and 10 lifestyle content creators. The selected interviewees
are TikTok content creators who create content on the platform over 3 months in a row
and have high engagement on the platforms (At least 50,000 likes in total).
The researcher has analyzed data from the interview and has come up with
19 key factors that the interviewees see as beneficial and potential from the platform.
The nineteen key factors that influence content creators to create content on TikTok are
The conceptual framework is representing all the key factors that the
researcher collected from all the video content creators. All of this factor are the primary
factors that influenced creators to keep create the contents on the TikTok platforms.
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According to the data that the researcher can collected after interviewed with
30 TikTok content creators. The main reason that influencing creators from 3 group the
most is to earn the money by doing the social media marketing, promoting the product
from sponsors. By getting many sponsors the creators need to have a high popularity or
we can call it as social media star. And the reason that people decided to use TikTok
platform is the ease of the platform and the support of the platform that make the content
go viral easily.
5.3 Recommendations
In this study, the researchers have collected much information from the
interviewees on both positive and negative information. Each creator has a different
perception through the platform, but what most creators see as the strength of the
platform is perceived ease of use (PEOU).
Many creators say that the supported tool and function that never had any
platform provided before makes their life much easier on creating content on platform.
Although there are many free editing video applications available in the market, they
think using many applications for creating content are complicated for them. The
provided popular music that creators can use without any worry about the copyright
make their contents more entertaining and attractive. Therefore, the platform can keep
developing the music to make it up to date all the time and also have a lot of sound
effects that the creators can choose. For the editing video part, currently, creators can
only do the basic editing video on the platform, hence if the platform could develop the
function to make it more professional use that could be the advantage of the platform
and attracting people to create content on the platform as well.
Although one of the factors that many creators see as the benefit from the
platform is the support from the platform to spread their contents to people who may
like their contents. But on the other hand, if the sponsor got a sponsor from the other
company to promote their products, many creators said that if they promote advertising
content their content is likely to be blocked or not delivered to other people even if they
have a high number of followers but the content view does not have high engagement.
Therefore, if the platform can find a way to improve the platform algorithm to be
33
beneficial for both platform and creators, these could attract more people to using
TikTok as their main platform.
A few creators mention the search engine of the platform. They said that the
video contents on TikTok seem to stay short time than other platforms due to the search
engine of the platform that could not search the contents by specific words. When they
upload the content on the platform, their content will spread to many audiences but once
if the audience wants to search the content by specific words such as makeup for
Halloween they could not do that because the platform only allows users to search
content from hashtag not from their caption. Therefore, if the creators have not put on
the hashtag match with a search word, the audience will not find the content that they
are looking for.
Lastly, for the creator who is interesting in expanding the channel to the
TikTok platform or people who want to start to create content online, TikTok is one of
the potential platforms in the market, with the supporter of the platform TikTok can help
you to reach a new audience and gaining new follower within a short time compared to
another video content platform. However, there are many platform rules that the creators
need to learn otherwise your content will be blocked.
The purpose of this research is to understand the creator's perception
through the TikTok platform so the platform company can consider the strength and
weakness from the creator's perception and develop the platform to be better according
to customer’s needs.
researchers collect from those introverted people might not be comprehensive due to the
interviewees not being willing to give some of the deep information.
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