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What should we make of this? A successful business model? A warning sign that humans can't control themselves in the face of addictive products? Or just anothe

What should we make of this? A successful business model? A warning sign that humans can't control themselves in the face of addictive products? Or just another fad, to be replaced by another fad in a short time?

hiptobecubic 5y ago
Could easily be all three? My main takeaway is that advertising works. TikTok seems to do almost nothing new and does it in a way that isn't new either. The advertising for it was insane, though and it exploded quickly as a result.
- dudyehcyc 5y ago
- saghm 5y ago
  I disagree a bit. I'm not sure how much this has been a part of why it's taken off, but TikTok does one quite interesting that it took me a while to fully grasp the implications of: indexing on sound and allowing easy reuse of existing ones. When you create a TikTok video, there's an option to reuse the sound of an existing video, and when viewing one, you can click something to see both the original video with that sound as well as all the other ones that used it chronologically. Lowering the bar to reusing a sound and adding custom video to the point where a non-technical user can do it with little effort essentially has basically enabled the proliferation of video memes, which before were created and evolved much more slowly than purely image-based ones due to the amount of effort needed to create and modify them. The fact that no one else seems to have caught on to this basically gives them a monopoly on this type of content, which makes it incredibly sticky.
ThalesX 5y ago
For me, I received a cool video on FB Messenger, with a TikTok URL. So I opened it and could just see it without making an account. That felt fresh already. Then I decided to get the app, and instantly I got a stream of actually interesting content from my region. It made an account for me with user# and I haven’t updated it since (maybe a year ago); no phone number, no e-mail. In time it sort of adapted to my interests and now I have a constant stream of homesteading, woodworking, computer stuff, booms, women etc. It feels very positive. I don’t even remember ever seeing a divisive video. At this date, with no affiliation, I feel TikTok has a good algorithm that actually takes into consideration your interests, delivers you fresh stuff and is not boosted with real shit metrics. I use it once or twice per week, but when I do I binge.
6510 5y ago
That the google search formula excludes new websites so efficiently that the web is getting smaller every day.
Spivak 5y ago
Successful business model mostly. Genuinely the most refreshing social network I’ve had the pleasure of using since early Tumblr. Might be a fad but only time will tell. On paper TT doesn’t do anything new but in practice it’s a completely different experience from every other social network — it’s like early YouTube recommendation rabbit holes, StumbleUpon, and Tumblr had a baby.

hiptobecubic 5y ago

Could easily be all three? My main takeaway is that advertising works. TikTok seems to do almost nothing new and does it in a way that isn't new either. The advertising for it was insane, though and it exploded quickly as a result.

dudyehcyc 5y ago
saghm 5y ago
I disagree a bit. I'm not sure how much this has been a part of why it's taken off, but TikTok does one quite interesting that it took me a while to fully grasp the implications of: indexing on sound and allowing easy reuse of existing ones. When you create a TikTok video, there's an option to reuse the sound of an existing video, and when viewing one, you can click something to see both the original video with that sound as well as all the other ones that used it chronologically. Lowering the bar to reusing a sound and adding custom video to the point where a non-technical user can do it with little effort essentially has basically enabled the proliferation of video memes, which before were created and evolved much more slowly than purely image-based ones due to the amount of effort needed to create and modify them. The fact that no one else seems to have caught on to this basically gives them a monopoly on this type of content, which makes it incredibly sticky.

ThalesX 5y ago

For me, I received a cool video on FB Messenger, with a TikTok URL. So I opened it and could just see it without making an account. That felt fresh already. Then I decided to get the app, and instantly I got a stream of actually interesting content from my region. It made an account for me with user# and I haven’t updated it since (maybe a year ago); no phone number, no e-mail. In time it sort of adapted to my interests and now I have a constant stream of homesteading, woodworking, computer stuff, booms, women etc. It feels very positive. I don’t even remember ever seeing a divisive video. At this date, with no affiliation, I feel TikTok has a good algorithm that actually takes into consideration your interests, delivers you fresh stuff and is not boosted with real shit metrics. I use it once or twice per week, but when I do I binge.

6510 5y ago

That the google search formula excludes new websites so efficiently that the web is getting smaller every day.

Spivak 5y ago

Successful business model mostly. Genuinely the most refreshing social network I’ve had the pleasure of using since early Tumblr. Might be a fad but only time will tell. On paper TT doesn’t do anything new but in practice it’s a completely different experience from every other social network — it’s like early YouTube recommendation rabbit holes, StumbleUpon, and Tumblr had a baby.