Popular Turkish-language format +90 expands to TikTok

The social media format +90 debuts on TikTok, delivering distinctive output on social and regional themes whilst offering Turkish-speaking viewers a new destination to engage with constructive journalistic content.

+90 expands to TikTok
DW journalists Kutlug Kocabas and Defne AltiokImage: DW

The TikTok channel @plus90_official is the latest expansion of the multiplatform channel +90. Since the launch on YouTube in April 2019, the format has maintained a strong digital-only presence in Turkey, with more than 625K subscribers and an average of 3 million monthly views, and has since expanded to Twitter, with a follower count of 75K, and Instagram, with 213K.  

+90 is a DW sponsored project developed with VOA, BBC, and France 24 as part of the international broadcasters' aim to create bespoke content and provide young Turkish audiences with unbiased information that promotes free speech in Turkey. While all four organizations contribute content to +90 YouTube channel, DW leads the project and oversees its programming, strategy, distribution, and marketing.

DW Managing Director of Programming Nadja Scholz: "As part of our digital-first approach to commissioning, the +90 format has been a great success. Thanks to the editorial team behind the international joint venture, it is the perfect format to deliver stories that explore a wider range of opinions, allowing young audiences to evaluate diverse issues affecting the Turkish society." 

Uncovering overlooked stories in Turkey

The launch on TikTok builds on the success and global reach of the format's social accounts on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter and marks one of the first journalistic offerings tailored for young TikTok users in the region to provide unbiased information amid a decline in journalistic freedom in Turkey. In addition to curating content relevant to viewers in Turkey, the format will continue its mission to uncover important stories missed by local news outlets and provide value to younger and more female audiences. 

Erkan Arikan, Director of Turkish Service: "The format +90 complements our offerings and enables us to further expand the ways we reach younger and especially female audiences in Turkey. We've seen a huge demand for fact-based, unbiased journalism in the region, and our +90 team is working around the clock to provide young people with relevant stories that don't make it into the Turkish news channels." 

Filling the gap for Turkish-focused constructive journalism

The channel serves as an extension of DW's editorial commitment to constructive journalism, with TikTok being an opportunity to reach the potential target groups in Turkey. 
Isil Nergiz, Head of Channel +90: "We started on YouTube and expanded to Twitter, Instagram and then TikTok, motivated by the desire to go where our audience is. Many people in Turkey use TikTok, most of whom are in the age range of our young target audience, but there is little to no journalistic content being offered to them. +90 reporting will fill the void for a Turkish-focused, independent, diverse and constructive journalism."

Cross-platform content reach 

+90 channel videos range in length from 30-second shorts to 15 minutes, allowing for more explanatory and in-depth content. Content includes interviews, reportages, and explainers on key regional themes, including the latest earthquakes in Turkey, the collapse of the Turkish lira, being a young Jew in Istanbul and stories of sexual abuse survivors. 

Some of the format's top videos to date on Instagram include Earthquake from a construction worker's perspective, with more than 9.9 million views. On YouTube, Scorpion venom fetching $10 million a liter reached over 3.6 million views. On Twitter, the video Being a young Armenian in Turkey has been viewed 1.5 million times and garnered over 5,000 likes.