--- description: Find out why TikTok was selected for the inaugural list title: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2021: TikTok image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7358f9f9619e6fac/698a18e48fd2ee429b3627e9/tiktok-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 26, 2021 # TikTok Grabbing the world’s attention by [Raisa Bruner](/author/raisa-bruner/) ## Raisa Bruner Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  A TikTok by Harper Watters, @theharperwatters, a Houston Ballet soloist, plays on a phone in New York on Jan. 26, 2021. A TikTok by Harper Watters, @theharperwatters, a Houston Ballet soloist, plays on a phone in New York on Jan. 26, 2021.Yael Malka—The New York Times/Redux Nathan Apodaca never expected to propel Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” back onto the Billboard Hot 100\. But that’s exactly what happened last September, after the 38-year-old posted a video of himself skateboarding and drinking cran-raspberry juice to the tune of the 1977 hit on [TikTok](https://time.com/5893660/tiktok-gen-z-voters/ "undefined"), where it went viral. Such is the power of America’s most popular app, where some 50 million U.S. users spend an average of 46 minutes every day. Its secret: an uncannily effective discovery algorithm that surfaces a never-ending stream of videos. Now TikTok—which infamously drew the ire of former President Trump over questions about user-data storage—is hosting livestream events (like a Justin Bieber concert) and partnering with Shopify to offer more in-app purchases, signs that its ambitions are much grander than helping users waste time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5950005/tiktok/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5950005/tiktok/"},"headline":"TikTok","datePublished":"2021-04-26T19:52:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:49:07.448Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5950005/tiktok/","keywords":["Lists","franchise","TIME100 Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7358f9f9619e6fac/698a18e48fd2ee429b3627e9/tiktok-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"creator":"Raisa Bruner","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7358f9f9619e6fac/698a18e48fd2ee429b3627e9/tiktok-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5950005/tiktok/","name":"TikTok"}}]}] ```