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Alex Zhu proved that you don’t need to be Facebook to become a social media hit

Zhu is No. 79 on the Recode 100.

By Kurt Wagner
Part of The Recode 100

Turns out Facebook and Google aren’t the only companies capable of building (or buying) successful mobile apps.

Alex Zhu’s Musical.ly, a music video and lip-synching app popular with teenagers, was acquired by the Chinese internet firm Toutiao for more than $800 million this year. That’s a sweet payday for Zhu, who founded Musical.ly just three years ago, and may give hope to other consumer app startups (and their investors) trying to create a mega-hit in today’s mobile environment dominated by big internet giants.

While Musical.ly sold, in part, because the company’s user growth was starting to lag, the big-time exit is also proof that consumer apps can reach a significant scale despite Facebook and Google claiming most of the internet’s attention — and in Facebook’s case, copying or buying anything that might be a threat.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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