Which came first, the internet (ARPANET) or TikTok?
the internet (ARPANET) came first, by 47 years. The first message was sent between two networked computers.
Side by side
| the internet (ARPANET) | TikTok | |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1969 | 2016 |
| Date | 1969-10-29 | — |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | The first message was sent between two networked computers. | ByteDance launched Douyin in China; TikTok followed abroad in 2017. |
the internet (ARPANET)
On 29 October 1969 a team at UCLA tried to send the word "login" to Stanford. The system crashed after two characters, so the first message ever sent over the internet's ancestor was "lo". By the end of that year the network had four nodes. The internet is twenty years older than the Web, and confusing the two is the single most common error in this whole subject.
TikTok
The app launched in China as Douyin in September 2016 and internationally as TikTok in 2017. What made it global was the 2018 acquisition and merger of Musical.ly, a lip-sync app that had launched in 2014 and already had a large Western user base — so part of TikTok is two years older than TikTok. Douyin and TikTok remain separate apps on separate infrastructure.
Common questions
- Which came first, the internet (ARPANET) or TikTok?
- the internet (ARPANET), by 47 years — 1969 against 2016.
- When did the internet (ARPANET) start?
- 1969. The first message was sent between two networked computers.
- When did TikTok start?
- 2016. ByteDance launched Douyin in China; TikTok followed abroad in 2017.
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Sources
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place