---
title: "Which came first, Python or TikTok?"
description: "Python vs TikTok: Python came first, by 25 years — 1991 against 2016. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/python-vs-tiktok/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Python or TikTok?

**Which came first, Python or TikTok?: Python**

1991 — 25 years before TikTok

Python came first, by 25 years. Guido van Rossum released version 0.9.0 publicly.

## Side by side

|  | Python | TikTok |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1991 | 2016 |
| Date | 1991-02-20 | — |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | Guido van Rossum released version 0.9.0 publicly. | ByteDance launched Douyin in China; TikTok followed abroad in 2017. |

## Python

Python was started as a hobby project over Christmas 1989 and first released publicly in February 1991 — four years before Java, JavaScript, PHP and Ruby, all of which arrived in 1995. Most people assume it is much newer because its popularity arrived twenty years after it did. It is named after Monty Python, not the snake.

## 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, Python or TikTok?

Python, by 25 years — 1991 against 2016.

### When did Python start?

1991. Guido van Rossum released version 0.9.0 publicly.

### When did TikTok start?

2016. ByteDance launched Douyin in China; TikTok followed abroad in 2017.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]
- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)