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TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

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291–300 of 331 posts

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#291

The metrics make sense: as a user of both platforms, I'm spending far more time on TT these days than IG. My biggest gripe is Instagram is absolutely filled with ads: you get ads in between stories, ads in between posts, then a good portion of actual posts are "sponsored" (so ads from the posters themselves)... it's just a really bad mire of advertising and people trying to sell me stuff. Meanwhile TikTok is still fa…

TikTok is the first social medium I don't get. It isn't very good at figuring out my tastes and just serves me generic hot people content. It doesn't try to figure out who I might want to contact with either. Maybe I'm getting old or something.

I hate when social media tries to figure out anything about what I like. Its never correct.

"Oh you liked this one cooking show, well here is 237 more cooking shows!"

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#292
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of that "alarming" picture[0] taken on a Philadelphia train used to scaremonger people about how everyone is addicted to the newspapers and how it degrades the fabric of society and thought by making everyone antisocial.[1] Yes, there are many arguments that can be brought up about differences between newspapers and social media, etc., but I strongly feel like it is essentially the same kind of neo-lu…

Just like all of the people pushing FUD that Tinder/Grindr and one night stand culture would kill true relationships (or worse implications on wider society). Even though everyone I know who used those earlier in their life and are now in serious relationships with people, often one's they met online. People are always looking for the 'surprising' reasons why society is really in decay and everyone's living their day…

>Just like all of the people pushing FUD that Tinder/Grindr and one night stand culture would kill true relationships (or worse implications on wider society). Even though everyone I know who used those earlier in their life and are now in serious relationships with people, often one's they met online.

Oh wow, I haven't even thought of that one until you mentioned it, but it certainly seems to ring true for the people I know as well.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#293
post #11

"It is the third most-downloaded app outside of gaming this year. Numbers one and two are WhatsApp and Messenger, while four and five are the Facebook app and Instagram." Facebook owns 4/5 of the most downloaded apps - just let that sink in for a minute. This space needs competition pretty badly.

To be fair, I've downloaded Messenger like 6 times this year because they prevent you from using the messaging capabilities of Facebook in a mobile browser - even if you request the desktop site.

So sometimes I'll have to download it when I don't have access to a desktop, send or read a message I needed to, and then uninstall it.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have children, all the children are using it. The other day two famous TikTokers we're spotted in a Northern VA mall and it was a pretty big deal. It's not fake.

Just because a lot of kids are using it doesn't mean it has 1.2Bn downloads. That's a lot of downloads. Gmail is 10 years old, for context, and it's ubiquitous for basically the entire population, and it has barely 4 times that. When you account for the fact that most Gmail users have gone through several phones and downloaded Gmail several times, it seems pretty suspicious that an app only for kids has 1.2Bn downloa…

> Gmail is 10 years old, for context, and it's ubiquitous for basically the entire population, and it has barely 4 times that.

GMail comes preinstalled in a lot of phones, and you can also use the service with different mail client, so you can't really compare two numbers and call that a day.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know people that cannot go 60 seconds without picking up their phone, with no purpose except to check for notifications that aren't there and then put it back down. Reposting a list of quotes from the past has no bearing on the present reality where people are really struggling to focus.

You say that "a list of quotes from the past has no bearing on the present reality" and then go on to say that "people are really struggling to focus" which is essentially the same point, or at least closely related, that the quotes from the xkcd are making. Why are you acting like the quotes are unrelated when they support what you're saying?

I think you're misunderstanding why OP posted the quotes. The quotes are mocking people that say that technology is making it harder for people to focus, because a hundred years ago people said the same thing about books and the telegraph etc.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#296
post #11

"It is the third most-downloaded app outside of gaming this year. Numbers one and two are WhatsApp and Messenger, while four and five are the Facebook app and Instagram." Facebook owns 4/5 of the most downloaded apps - just let that sink in for a minute. This space needs competition pretty badly.

At lot of comments in these threads fear-mongering about China, but if it weren't for a powerful government asserting that FB, etc cannot acquire ByteDance and the like, then 5/5 would be FB owned. This space only has competition because China aggressively enforces it.

The US government is basically run from corporate interest, which has served people well for 50 years when things are good. But those corporations have no loyalty to the US. As political and economics interests shift, expect those large corporations to follow there own interests, not those of any nation.

The Chinese government, for all of its many faults, is making sure that Chinese corporations serve the interest of China. Corporations currently located in the US no longer even pay lip service to being interested in supporting the people of United States.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#297

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…

It's more of an addition rather than evolution. Also it's relatively new to westerners so there's the "new fangled" part of it. I tried it (albeit a year ago) and all I saw were a bunch of teen agers acting goofy and not really doing much to further civilization. It's definitely social though.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#298
post #58
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time we have the rise of long form podcasts. Producing quite the opposite effect.

90% of podcasts these days are just people rambling on without much thought while trying to sell you something. I have a feeling that most people who listen to podcasts do so for background noise, as a way inject some dopamine into their boring commute or routine chores. I used to listen to podcasts a ton but switched to listening to lectures or conference talks.

What? My podcasts are all on subjects that I'm interested in and rarely (other than sponsored 1 or 2 minute ads that I can fast forward through) mention a product. What are you on about?

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First there was text, both Facebook and Twitter. Then images with instagram. Now people want videos that they can consume in short bits of time en mass. What you are describing is the continued fall to smaller and smaller bits of stimulation and information. I’m worried about the consequences of this on the human mind and humanity in general. Our tech is gradually eroding our ability to focus on anything for more t…

Videos encode way more information than a snippet of text. If anything, social media is moving the opposite way, where people are requiring more stimulation and information.

depends on the image and the text. teens dumping goo on their brother's head and then running away are essentially useless compared to a wiki paragraph on the holocaust.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#300
post #248
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was competition and FB used their war chest to buy them all, sans messenger. They forced people to download messenger to see FB messages on mobile. They also lied and said you had a message when you really didn’t. Just to force the messenger download.

I'm forced to use messenger for work but have refused to download the mobile app for this reason. Voting with my download count.

Ouch, forced to use Facebook for work... Thats rough... My last company ALMOST used Facebook for enterprise like 3 years ago when they were advertising it... So glad it was a flaming pile of garbage when we tested it out.
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