TikTok and the Sorting Hat
&gt; How did an app designed by two guys in Shanghai managed to run circles around U.S. video apps<p>Part of the explanation is that they weren&#x27;t in Shanghai. The founders both worked full time at US tech companies in California when musical.ly was founded.  musical.ly may have been founded while they were temporarily in Shanghai, but the founders were not some random people who didn&#x27;t understand US culture.<p>This is important to the article&#x27;s thesis. At least part of the early insight into the US market comes from the founders living and working in the US.