4 ms·

I am not sure I care much about tiktok's source code really. Most of it cannot be too hard. The interesting part of tiktok to me is how they scale video storag

I am not sure I care much about tiktok's source code really. Most of it cannot be too hard. The interesting part of tiktok to me is how they scale video storage and then how it gets back to the user so fast. That part is amazing. The rest of it seems less interesting to me.

weird-eye-issue 4y ago
For starters their algorithm seems to work pretty well
amelius 4y ago
> The interesting part of tiktok to me is how they scale video storage and then how it gets back to the user so fast. Isn't that problem solved by the network (CDNs etc)?
- Cyph0n 4y ago
  CDNs are designed to easily handle relatively static content (e.g., Netflix-like streaming services). Scaling user-generated video serving is a much more challenging problem.
  - amelius 4y ago
    I bet most tiktok videos can be categorized into a few classes and all users just watch the videos in one of those classes. So basically, it is very much like Netflix. Also, the videos are much shorter.
- withinboredom 4y ago
  You need to process the video before that, as not every phone/browser has the right codecs to stream from every other phone. Then you need to ship that to POPs and serve it. That’s some industrial strength bandwidth and computer power, not to mention the feature tagging the AI is doing to show the videos to the right audience.
  - dannyw 4y ago
    Tiktok videos are aggressively compressed; many are 1MB or less. A 8TB NVMe can fit 8 million videos.
    - withinboredom 4y ago
      Are you telling me that the compression is done on the device? I would think very little compression would be done on-device and instead sent as-is, with the server doing the compression.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
otherme123 4y ago
The most praised thing in TikTok is how they tailor videos to each user. While Insta or Facebook rely on virality, TikTok is able to show you videos barely liked and shared, and you somehow like them. I remember reading about a guy experimenting with liking only long and high quality videos, skipping short and cheap ones. After a dozen of visualizations TikTok got the cues and started showing exactly what the guy had planned. After five years in LinkedIn saying the plain truth, they still don't get me at all, and they just keep my feed filled with the most "interacted" content.
- firecall 4y ago
  Twitter is just as bad. It fills my feed with inflammatory US based political tweets, and I'm not interested. If a tech journalists decides to reply on a thread about the latest GoP nonsense, then as an Australian that is interested in tech news, I don't want to hear it!
  - slenk 4y ago
    Frankly, as a US citizen, I don't want my tech journalists talking about the GOP either.
  - wishfish 4y ago
    Twitter's algorithm isn't front and center as long as you're set to "latest tweets". It's reduced to the sidebar where it guesses (badly) what trends I'll be interested in. On mobile, I don't even see the sidebar or trends unless I deliberately seek them out. It's one thing I like about Twitter. All I see are the people I followed and the people they retweet. If one of them gets annoying, unfollow or mute. And it's all in chronological order. Unless I'm missing something, nothing is getting filtered or pushed by some annoying algorithm. For your situation, you might want to create a list of words for Twitter to block for you. That might help you avoid certain topics.
- 1337biz 4y ago
  I really like that about it too. I swipe all negative, political or polished content away and my feed feels more enjoyable than any other content before. No endless negative emotion trigger baits like Twitter/FB or overpolished bullshit world like Instagram. It delivers the weird and wonderful world that I like.
tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago
The most interesting parts of the source code would be parts showing that they're collecting/using data that they either promised not to collect/use or that would be illegal for them to collect/use.

weird-eye-issue 4y ago

For starters their algorithm seems to work pretty well

amelius 4y ago

> The interesting part of tiktok to me is how they scale video storage and then how it gets back to the user so fast. Isn't that problem solved by the network (CDNs etc)?

Cyph0n 4y ago
CDNs are designed to easily handle relatively static content (e.g., Netflix-like streaming services). Scaling user-generated video serving is a much more challenging problem.
- amelius 4y ago
  I bet most tiktok videos can be categorized into a few classes and all users just watch the videos in one of those classes. So basically, it is very much like Netflix. Also, the videos are much shorter.
withinboredom 4y ago
You need to process the video before that, as not every phone/browser has the right codecs to stream from every other phone. Then you need to ship that to POPs and serve it. That’s some industrial strength bandwidth and computer power, not to mention the feature tagging the AI is doing to show the videos to the right audience.
- dannyw 4y ago
  Tiktok videos are aggressively compressed; many are 1MB or less. A 8TB NVMe can fit 8 million videos.
  - withinboredom 4y ago
    Are you telling me that the compression is done on the device? I would think very little compression would be done on-device and instead sent as-is, with the server doing the compression.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

otherme123 4y ago

The most praised thing in TikTok is how they tailor videos to each user. While Insta or Facebook rely on virality, TikTok is able to show you videos barely liked and shared, and you somehow like them. I remember reading about a guy experimenting with liking only long and high quality videos, skipping short and cheap ones. After a dozen of visualizations TikTok got the cues and started showing exactly what the guy had planned. After five years in LinkedIn saying the plain truth, they still don't get me at all, and they just keep my feed filled with the most "interacted" content.

firecall 4y ago
Twitter is just as bad. It fills my feed with inflammatory US based political tweets, and I'm not interested. If a tech journalists decides to reply on a thread about the latest GoP nonsense, then as an Australian that is interested in tech news, I don't want to hear it!
- slenk 4y ago
  Frankly, as a US citizen, I don't want my tech journalists talking about the GOP either.
- wishfish 4y ago
  Twitter's algorithm isn't front and center as long as you're set to "latest tweets". It's reduced to the sidebar where it guesses (badly) what trends I'll be interested in. On mobile, I don't even see the sidebar or trends unless I deliberately seek them out. It's one thing I like about Twitter. All I see are the people I followed and the people they retweet. If one of them gets annoying, unfollow or mute. And it's all in chronological order. Unless I'm missing something, nothing is getting filtered or pushed by some annoying algorithm. For your situation, you might want to create a list of words for Twitter to block for you. That might help you avoid certain topics.
1337biz 4y ago
I really like that about it too. I swipe all negative, political or polished content away and my feed feels more enjoyable than any other content before. No endless negative emotion trigger baits like Twitter/FB or overpolished bullshit world like Instagram. It delivers the weird and wonderful world that I like.

tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago

The most interesting parts of the source code would be parts showing that they're collecting/using data that they either promised not to collect/use or that would be illegal for them to collect/use.