TikTok’s sudden popularity might’ve taken many by surprise as the app burst out on the social media scene seemingly out of nowhere. But TikTok’s origin is clear, it’s based on its one year-older predecessor, Douyin 抖音 which has over 500 million monthly active users. New TikTok features often make their debut on Douyin, bringing Chinese successes to the rest of Asia and Western markets. So by examining the Chinese predecessor, we can get a hint at what TikTok’s future will look like. What’s Douyin? Douyin launched in September 2016 and, in less than a year, began expanding internationally under the…

This story continues at The Next Web