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Is Tiktok's userbase so loyal that they want to spend $50B on it, the app effectively has no moat. Why not just launch a competitor and pay content creators to

Is Tiktok's userbase so loyal that they want to spend $50B on it, the app effectively has no moat. Why not just launch a competitor and pay content creators to post there, all of these companies(including other FAANG group as well) have deep pockets and engineering talent.

xster 6y ago
I think this is one good case of value from execution vs from idea. The idea's pretty dead simple but I think there are execution reasons why creators and viewers are on TikTok. The AI recommendations, video editing abilities and live AI filters are fairly unmatched. YouTube has all the reasons for me to spend more time on it than TikTok if its recommendations system doesn't keep thinking I want to become a plumber after watching one DIY video.
- actuator 6y ago
  I am not sure how the kind of videos that do well on Tiktok will do on Youtube. Tiktok video seems to be the 10-30 second entertainment ones. Youtube by its very nature has a whole breadth of other content. Their recommendation can be certainly improved though.
  - xster 6y ago
    I'm not saying their contents are interchangeable. I'm just saying there are more diverse and deeper contents on YouTube and I should be spending more time on YouTube if the recommendation system's execution was more on point. i.e. I'm disagreeing with the GP that the app has no moat. The app idea is a simple one but the execution isn't that trivial to copy.
nxc18 6y ago
Yes, users on TikTok are loyal, at the very least creators are. I haven't heard of any creators, at least none that I follow, moving to Instagram's competing offering. I think there may also be a sense of broad injustice that makes people more loyal to the offering. The President's actions have laid bare the reality that this is just a smash and grab on behalf of US interests, and not based in any actual national security concern, painting him and the US government as dishonest and corrupt. There are claims we did similar things in the Middle East, interfering under false pretenses to get oil, and it turns out in 2020 that approach is unpopular to the general public, even if it is 'in the US interest'.
- actuator 6y ago
  But creators can always be enticed with money, after all isn't that why most of them are there. The way he is going about this is definitely thuggish, he would have probably earned more fans by not forcing a sale and instead using alternatives to stifle it.
  - throw_away 6y ago
    Microsoft tried the build-a-competitor-then-pay-creators approach with Mixer vs Twitch and then shut it down less than a year later: https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-closes-mixer-partners-with-facebook-2020-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-closes-mixer-partn...

xster 6y ago

I think this is one good case of value from execution vs from idea. The idea's pretty dead simple but I think there are execution reasons why creators and viewers are on TikTok. The AI recommendations, video editing abilities and live AI filters are fairly unmatched. YouTube has all the reasons for me to spend more time on it than TikTok if its recommendations system doesn't keep thinking I want to become a plumber after watching one DIY video.

actuator 6y ago
I am not sure how the kind of videos that do well on Tiktok will do on Youtube. Tiktok video seems to be the 10-30 second entertainment ones. Youtube by its very nature has a whole breadth of other content. Their recommendation can be certainly improved though.
- xster 6y ago
  I'm not saying their contents are interchangeable. I'm just saying there are more diverse and deeper contents on YouTube and I should be spending more time on YouTube if the recommendation system's execution was more on point. i.e. I'm disagreeing with the GP that the app has no moat. The app idea is a simple one but the execution isn't that trivial to copy.

nxc18 6y ago

Yes, users on TikTok are loyal, at the very least creators are. I haven't heard of any creators, at least none that I follow, moving to Instagram's competing offering. I think there may also be a sense of broad injustice that makes people more loyal to the offering. The President's actions have laid bare the reality that this is just a smash and grab on behalf of US interests, and not based in any actual national security concern, painting him and the US government as dishonest and corrupt. There are claims we did similar things in the Middle East, interfering under false pretenses to get oil, and it turns out in 2020 that approach is unpopular to the general public, even if it is 'in the US interest'.

actuator 6y ago
But creators can always be enticed with money, after all isn't that why most of them are there. The way he is going about this is definitely thuggish, he would have probably earned more fans by not forcing a sale and instead using alternatives to stifle it.
- throw_away 6y ago
  Microsoft tried the build-a-competitor-then-pay-creators approach with Mixer vs Twitch and then shut it down less than a year later: https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-closes-mixer-partners-with-facebook-2020-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-closes-mixer-partn...