The European Football Championships begin, finally, we all wanted some magical nights after the endless night of the covid. We have been telling each other for at least a decade that they will be the Europeans of social media, that is lived in real time online. But this time it’s really different. Let’s not talk about Twitter and hashtags during matches. This time there is more. In fact, the main sponsor of the event is TikTok. Not just any sponsor, the main one, the one we will see always and everywhere. The Chinese app that has been the most downloaded in the world for a year and a half. What a year ago for Donald Trump was a threat to American national security to the point that he ordered a moody management of user data via an American platform. The one blocked by the Italian Privacy Guarantor in January for a tragic and never clarified story in which a teenager had died. That: TikTok. Which is also the favorite app for creatives and talents, activists and those who simply want to have fun like Khaby Lame, the guy who, starting from a suburb of northern Italy in just over a year is reaching 100 million followers.
Why TikTok at the European Football Championships then? To bring the final challenge to Instagram: bring home one of the most sought-after categories on social media, footballers. We are talking about tens, in some cases, hundreds of millions of followers for some top players like Ronaldo. Having the players move to TikTok, convincing them that it is more fun and engaging to tell their businesses on the Chinese social network than that of Mark Zuckerberg’s galaxy, can be the decisive move to become the first social network in the world. At stake, in these European Championships, there is also this match.
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