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Introduction

TikTok supports independent research about our platform. Through our Research API, academic researchers from non-profit universities in the U.S. And Europe can apply to study public data about TikTok content and accounts. This document describes the Research API functionality provided to researchers by TikTok.

Eligibility and Data Access

To check your eligibility and determine the process to get access to this data, check our product page.

Content Made Available for Research

Videos

Unit of Analysis

A public TikTok video posted by a public creator (who is aged 18 and over), who wants to expose his/her videos to all users of TikTok

Scope

All the videos from TikTok that are:

  1. made public by a creator who is aged 18 and over;
  2. AND, are posted in the regions of US, Europe and Rest of the World;
  3. AND do not belong to Canada.

Details

  1. Region Code : This describes the code of the country where the video was created. Click here to learn more about the region codes returned.
  2. User Name : This is the user name of the creator.
  3. Video Description : This is the description of the video.
  4. View Count : This is the total number of views for a video on TikTok.
  5. Comment Count : This is the total number of comments posted on a video.
  6. Create Time : This is the time when the video was created.
  7. Video ID : This is a unique video ID for each video posted on TikTok. This is a number that can be used to reconstruct the URL link to access the video.
  8. Like Count : The total number of likes on a TikTok video, created by users by clicking the “Heart” icon.
  9. Share Count : The total number of times a TikTok video has been shared by clicking the "Share" button with the video.

Comments

Unit of Analysis

A comment OR a reply to a comment posted for a public video on TikTok.

Scope

The information provided here includes text extracted from comments and a serial number (i.e. comment IDs) that help identify original comments posted on a video and any replies to comments. To protect the privacy of our users, other information is removed.

Details

  1. Create Time : This is the time when the comment was posted on a video.
  2. ID : This is the unique comment ID for a comment posted on a video.
  3. Like Count : The total number of likes for a comment under a video, created by users by clicking the “Heart” icon.
  4. Parent Comment ID : This is the unique ID of the parent comment when the user responds to another user's comment. If the comment was directly entered for a video, this ID is the same as the Video ID.
  5. Text : This is the actual text of the comment entered on a video. To protect the privacy of our users, other information is removed.
  6. Video_ID : This is the video ID for which the comment was entered.

Users

Unit of Analysis

User information of all TikTok users that have set their account to public and are aged 18 and over.

Scope

The public details of a public user who is aged 18 and over can be accessed via this particular API.

Details

  1. Following Count : This is the number of people that a public user follows.
  2. Likes Count : This is the total number of likes accumulated by the user.
  3. Video Count : This is the total number of videos that the user has posted on his/her TikTok account.
  4. Bio Description : This is the description in the bio of the user. If the user does not have a description, this will be returned blank.
  5. Display Name : This is the user's display name that is found under the user name.
  6. Follower Count : This is the total number of followers that follow the user.
  7. AvatarURL : This is the URL of the user's profile picture.
  8. Is Verified : This returns the information on whether the user has been verified. All verified users will have "blue tick" next to their user name. If the user has a blue tick, this variable will return a "true" in the response.