£13 million will be spent on publishing educational content

Social media giant TikTok has unveiled plans to release educational content on its platform.  TikTok, which is owned by Shanghai firm ByteDance, is aiming to strengthen its presence outside of China.  It has allocated £13 million to delivering educational content by partnering with a variety of universities and charities.  The content will be accessible using #LearnOnTikTok, a hashtag that is already popular with views in excess of 7 billion.

Examples of educational videos that will be shared on the platform include:

– Rachel Riley, a TV presenter and mathematician will share maths skills

– Sean Sagar, a British actor will share advice on acting

– Dr Rangan Chatterjee, a British doctor and TV presenter will share health and well-being tips

– Dr Julie Smith, a British clinical psychologist will cover mental health and how to cope with stress and anxiety

“ Going forward, LearnOnTikTok is about us investing in partners and content creators with a breadth of professional content… We think this is about applying the power of TikTok to learning: the effects, the audio, the transitions, the tools that make it so engaging and fun, to make people enjoy learning. ” Rich Waterworth, General Manager, TikTok Europe

A portion of the funds will be allocated to the University of Cambridge and English Heritage.  These institutions will create scientific and historic videos.  The plan is to eventually feature hundreds of high quality instructional videos and life hacks.

“ The reception from our community shows that people are eager to #LearnOnTikTok—and we’re energized by the opportunity to do more. To support the growth in creative learning, we’re exploring additional ways to showcase the rich offering of instructional content that’s thriving on the platform ” Bryan Thoensen, Head of Content Partnerships, TikTok US

More information can be accessed here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53079625