MONTEVIDEO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- TikTok, a short-form video platform for smartphones, is no longer a well-kept secret among teenagers in Uruguay, as more and more adolescents take to the user-friendly app.
"I think that in 2020 it will take off in Uruguay," Diego Barcia, manager in Uruguay and Chile of strategic social media communication agency Nicestream, told Xinhua.
"Some important brands in the world of football and entertainment are asking us for it," he said.
Launched in 2016 in China as Douyin, TikTok allows users to create and share short videos with background music and edit them with time effects and filters -- features that made it stand out worldwide.
"It's a super cool app that lets you share ephemeral content. That's what is attracting youth the most," Barcia said.
Among those interested in incorporating TikTok into their social media strategies is the Uruguayan Football Association, according to Barcia.
"We have a team at Nicestream working on it," he said.
"We are looking at what type of strategy can have the most traction, because we are all new to the app," he added.
According to the profile of the average Uruguayan Internet user, which Radar consultancy prepares each year, young people's attention span for social media content is 1.7 seconds.
"The struggle to retain users watching your content is great. It's quite the challenge for social networks and it's evident (that) TikTok is doing that well, because it is making progress in a fish tank full of sharks," he said.
In October, Uruguay's National football team, one of the most important in the South American country, teamed up with TikTok. Without promotion and with little content, the team succeeded in gaining 11,000 followers in just a few months.
Martin Sarthou, communications manager of the national team, said, "The fact that we reached 11,000 followers almost without trying is a very auspicious beginning. We are not exploiting it yet and there is a very good base."
The national team has so far produced little "native language" content on TikTok, said Sarthou, but that should change in 2020 with the incorporation of a platform specialist, who is also a "fan" that understands the team.
The general director of TikTok for Spain and South America, Noel Nuez, described the incorporation of the national team as "a great opportunity to connect Uruguayan football with the global audiences of the platform," which reaches around 150 markets in 75 languages.
Claudio Facelli, 26, is Uruguay's top TikToker, with about half a million followers, and promotes a group called "Urutokers" that gathers popular local users of the app.
"I gradually built the group up to spur TikTok on in Uruguay," said Facelli, who goes by his online name Claudinio.
As the group became more active, it drew the attention of marketers.
"Lots of things started happening and brands began to approach us," he said, proving the power of this popular social platform.
