TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram • Hacker News Board

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#181

Post by _s4uu » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

melzidek wrote: post #133

_s4uu wrote: post #104

[flagged]

The CCP subsidizing a social media platform hurts no one. Meanwhile, are you aware how many countries the US military is simultaneously occupying at the moment? We have become a major evil, hated across the world. Not all Americans want this empire to perpetuate

The favoured retort of the pro CCP group is American imperialism. No doubt, I agree it is no longer in America's best interest to defend foreign nations and to meddle internationally.

However, that does not excuse your ignorance. A totalitarian regime that has caused more death than any other regime in history; one that primarily values wealth over freedom; one that does not believe in the sanctity of human life (ie Uighurs) is not fit to be influencing global culture.

Moreover, I agree American foreign imperialism has caused awful things to happen, but one thing no one ever realizes: this is the only time in human history that the world has had a monopole aka one dominant super power by far. Usually the world is bipolar or multipolar. Yet the last 70 years has yielded the fewest deaths from war as a percent of the global population in history. Should America be upset with its past? Sure. However, if China had been the global monopole for the last 70 years I do not believe the total death toll from war would be so low. thanks for ur opinion

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#182

Post by GordonS » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #118

GordonS wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope this is sarcasm? The things the USA did supposedly in the name of stopping "red danger" were utterly dispicable, and still have an impact today.

[flagged]

The 2 scenarios are not mutually exclusive - the threat from communism could have been averted without overthrowing democracies, arming terrorists etc.

Something like 200k people died in the civil war that ensued in Guatamala after the US-backed coup. And that is but one example. It could be argued that a lot of the violence and instability in Latin America is as a result of US intervetion.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#183

Post by mgbmtl » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

hervature wrote: post #130

mgbmtl wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian, random examples: Indifference to violence, hypocrisy on nudity, monetizing privacy (no respect for privacy), monetizing medical care. (I don't mean to start a flame war, but they are topics where EU and Canada tend to disagree with major US trends)

As a fellow Canadian can you expand on this? Canada has been involved in every war that the US has been in my lifetime (born in 1993). Don't know what you mean on hypocrisy on nudity, but I only became comfortable with it when I visited Scandinavia when I was 22; seems like Canada has a similar issue. I'll maybe give you medical care, but this is an incredibly complex topic. To think that public health care isn't mon…

Violence: We have very different gun control laws, and general perception towards guns and violence. In my kid's primary school, they weren't even allowed to pretend-shoot at each other. Whereas I have to remind my US friends to leave their gun at home if driving to Canada (and yes, one of them had their gun confiscated at the border).

Medical care monetisation: sure there is a big private industry, but it's scales different than in the US. And it did not say that it does not exist, only that we tend to disagree on the trend (ex: pharma insurance, now deployed in some provinces, and likely to become federal).

Nudity: granted, I'm from Quebec, it might be different, but things like nipples, breastfeeding, nudity in art, being naked in locker rooms, seeing friends naked (non-sexually), etc. people tend to be much more indifferent about nudity and more comfortable with their body. Obviously, that's a huge generalization and perhaps anecdotal, but I heard this often.

Ah, and I guess with regards to violence, is our difference in free speech: hate speech is not permitted (with exclusions for religious groups, because of LGBT issues, iirc).

Again, these are what I think are non-aligned trends, and topics that have an impact on moderation/algorithms online, not a hard truth. Obviously not everyone agrees on these topics, some regions are more divided than others, and these views tend to evolve in time.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#184

Post by wccrawford » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

afiori wrote: post #21

BoumTAC wrote: post #10

Can you find interesting video(non funny) on tik tok ? For example if your interested in bike, can you find cool bike related stuff ? Or is it just some people doing funny thing with some music on it ? I tried it a few months ago and found only funny videos. It's cool but it's not what's going to create a account on it. I like Instagram or YouTube because I can follow thing I'm interesting in.

My impression is that it is a quick, simple, but extremely effective medium for artistic expression. In a sense it is very pure; it is not about anything specific and, more importantly, it is not about showing a fake, happy, successful version of yourself. While I am too old to participate in it, as a medium it looks more healthy in term of living with your online persona (compared to insta-models and travel vlogging…

I just took a trip through the "trending" page and all I saw were dog videos, people showing off how awesome, happy or cool they were, and a couple tutorials.

None of that says "real" to me. It was all about showing how happy and successful they were.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#185

Post by hackernewsboy » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

partiallypro wrote: post #47

My only concern with TikTok is data collection being funneled to the CCP.

this is a small part, actually. if the younger generation of the us population is brainwashed by the ccp regime's propaganda, what is going to happen when these kids grow up?

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#186

Post by xiphias2 » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:09 PM UTC

partiallypro wrote: post #154

progval wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike Facebook, which is data collection being funneled to Western companies and US agencies.

The US isn't using that data to put Muslims into concentration camps and killing them to take their organs, or marching troops into Hong Kong.

You’re right about the concentration camps, but regarding Hong Kong US has done and is doing worse things. Sadly this is how empires work.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#187

Post by rcpt » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:10 PM UTC

Expect to see more of this. Other nations will innovate and keep talent around while Bay Area engineers are stuck in traffic or moving away because of bad schools and insane housing costs.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#188

Post by response777 » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:10 PM UTC

partiallypro wrote: post #154

progval wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike Facebook, which is data collection being funneled to Western companies and US agencies.

The US isn't using that data to put Muslims into concentration camps and killing them to take their organs, or marching troops into Hong Kong.

As a programmer, I am seriously curious about how these silly videos can help PRC "put Muslims into concentration camps", "take their organs" or "march troops into Hong Kong"

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#189

Post by headsupftw » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:12 PM UTC

ksec wrote: post #28

Outperforming when Instagram is banned in China. I remember there was a vaguely similar services from Twitter, and that somehow never caught on.

Do you even know TikTok is not available in China? The brand was specifically created for western countries. In China the same company (ByteDance) owns a hugely popular short-video app called Douyin. These two apps do not share content for obvious reasons (yes, communist censorship and all that).

I think what boggles HN readers' mind (mine included and I'm Chinese btw), is that in a place that's purportedly Orwellian or at least bearing resemblance to it, creativity is supposed to be severely oppressed and virtually non-existent. Yet the reality is quite the opposite.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#190

Post by xiphias2 » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 6:12 PM UTC

akhilcacharya wrote: post #35

bransonf wrote: post #30

What amazes me is that Tik-Tok fills the void created when Twitter killed vine. Given the popularity of Vine, and the outrage when Twitter killed it, I have no idea why they thought it was a good move. I’m bullish on Tik-Tok because I think it’s the next logical evolution of social media (and totally captures the Vine fan base which was pretty big to begin with) First there was text, both Facebook and Twitter. Then i…

I’ve been a user for a year now. It used to be that people watched it for the bad content - then intentionally bad content. The biggest TikTok compilations were “TikTok cringe”. But now...the content is actually good!

Sounds like youtube. It took years for youtube to get from cat video quality to scientific / conference videos that often are better than books / text by the name people.

I still don’t believe I would switch :)