Jagger Eaton, a skateboarder, celebrated his bronze medal with a live broadcast on Instagram. Margielyn Didal «let Tony Hawk take a photo with her for Facebook.
Olympians tested the stability of the cardboard-framed beds in the athlete’s village. A Greek water polo player also created a dating app. This might have been useful for Ilona Maher (American rugby player), who went along with the «Thirsty Olympian» slang.
It’s now easier than ever to watch the Tokyo Games, which are closed to spectators due to pandemic precautions. Social media and streaming are allowing athletes and their events to reach the public in new and innovative ways.
Through the first week, more than 100 million people visited the Olympic digital platforms and used the Tokyo 2020 mobile app. The U.S. rightsholder NBC reported that 2.5 billion minutes of Olympic content has been streamed across all its digital platforms. This is 77% more than the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Games. Peacock’s first week in Tokyo saw the most weekly streaming usage ever recorded.
But it’s the social media platforms that are causing the breakout buzz. Social posts by Olympics accounts on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Weibo generated 3.7 billion engagements. Social media accounts for the Olympics have 75 million combined followers.
There is also the TikTok phenomenon. The short-form video-sharing app TikTok was launched in 2017. It has become one of the most popular social media platforms for these games. TikTok has been used by athletes you haven’t heard of before Tokyo, especially those from niche sports. It allows them to share moments that go viral and gives them the opportunity to show the world who they are.
Traffic to TikTok was driven by karate, surfing, sport climbing, and skateboarding — all of which resonate with younger people. The podium winners in women’s street skateboarding were 13, 13 and 16 years old, and silver medalist Rayssa Leal of Brazil has 3.4 million followers on TikTok, half of her 6.5 million followers on Instagram.
The official Olympics page has seen more than three billion videos about the #OlympicSpirit challenge.
Mark Adams, IOC spokesperson, says that «TikTok is, as my son said to me recently, the digital place choice of younger audiences.» «The Games must go where the people are.»
