Facebook Due to Launch Small Business Grants in Thailand Soon

Facebook is offering USD 100M in grants to help support small businesses that are struggling as a result of the global COVID-19 outbreak. The programme, announced in March, is now accepting applications in several locations across the USA.

The majority of the grants will be given out in cash that can be spent towards paying rent, paying wages, and other operational costs. Ad credits that can be used for business services will also be available.

Who Can Apply?

Up to 300,000 businesses in more than 30 countries where Facebook operates are eligible for the grant. In order to apply, your business must meet the following requirements:

· Have between 2 and 50 employees

· Have been in business for over a year

· Have experienced challenges from COVID-19

· Be in or near a location where Facebook operates

The grants programme is expected to launch in Thailand over the next few weeks. Details of specific locations where the grant will be available are yet to be announced, but you can register to receive updates as soon as they become available on the Small Business Grants Programme official page.

10 Fascinating TikTok statistics in 2020

Since its launch in 2017 the video-sharing social networking app TikTok has taken the world by storm, becoming the fastest growing social media platform in the world.

What is TikTok?

In 2016 the Chinese company ByteDance launched a short video app called Douyin. Powered by its library of built-in video editing tools, it quickly became the #1 user-generated content app, enjoying enormous popularity among young adults in China.

In 2017 ByteDance bought the popular lip-sync platform Musical.ly in a deal valued at up to US $1 billion. The following year Musical.ly was rebranded as TikTok – an international version of Douyin. The video sharing format was an instant hit among global audiences and by October 2018 TikTok had become the #1 most downloaded app in the US.

TikTok is all about short-format video. Most videos on TikTok are only 15 seconds long or less, although it’s possible to make videos of up to 60 seconds. The videos, accompanied by a wide mixture of effects and filters, can range from various hashtag challenges to dancing, memes, slow-mo, duets, cosplay and so on. Examples of hashtags include #raindropchallenge, which has been watched over 1 billion times to date.

The platform takes advantage of cutting-edge machine learning to interpret individual preferences and deliver content to its users accordingly.

Here are some fascinating statistics about TikTok:

1. There are 800 million monthly active users.

To put this in context, Instagram has about 1 billion active monthly users.

2. It’s the 2^nd most popular app in the world.

TikTok was the 2nd most downloaded app in 2019 with 738 million downloads.
It was the #1 most downloaded app in App store and the second most downloaded app on Google Play behind WhatsApp

3. It’s very popular in Thailand.

Thailand is one of TikTok’s key markets in Southeast Asia. It has already been downloaded here more than 10 million times.

4. It’s also popular among Thai celebrities.

Many Thai celebrities and influencers have embraced the platform. Noteable Thai personalities on TikTok include the singer Ratchanok Suwannaket (8.8M followers) and YouTuber Kaykai (5.3M followers).

5. In 2019, over 1 billion videos were watched on TikTok every day.

This is roughly equal to 68 billion hours spent on the app.

6. TikTok is fuelled by teenagers.

41% TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24.

7. But its popularity among adults is growing.

In 2020 TikTok’s US adult users more than doubled year on year.

8. The average TikTok user spends 52 minutes per day on the platform.

This is almost 2x the time an average Instagram user spends scrolling through their feed.

9. Most TikTok users visit the app multiple times daily.

90% of of TikTok users visit the app more than once per day.

10. It’s available globally.

TikTok is available in 155 countries. It is also available in 75 different languages.